Kate Winchester: Part Two
by Winchestergirl67
Summary: Sequel to Kate Winchester. Dean, Sam and their little sister Kate continue to hunt together.
1. Chapter 1

_WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS GUYS :D ENJOY :)_

Sam sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes and blinking hard to focus his vision in the dark motel room. The only stream of light came from the small gap in the middle of the shades. He reached over and picked up his phone to check the time, something else catching his eye. The date. It was one year on since the night they'd stopped the world from ending. A whole year since the night that Ruby had died and they had stopped the apocalypse from happening. Lying back down, Sam thought over the last year. If he was being honest, it hadn't been all that eventful. Not that he was complaining about that. None of them had died or been seriously injured, something quite rare for them. The world hadn't ended and they still had their good friend Castiel watching out for them. And most importantly to him, things had pretty much gone back to the way they were before with his brother and sister.

Kate had gotten over things pretty quickly. She'd stuck around him for a couple of weeks, barely letting him out of her sight but that soon stopped. She trusted Sam never to go down that road again and that was enough for her.

Dean had been pretty good about it too. Sam had never expected him to forgive him for what he'd done with Ruby but he had done. He'd kept a close eye on him for a while until he was sure that he could totally trust him again, not that Sam blamed him for that. But he knew that Dean had his back and somehow that made him feel pretty safe.

Sam had much more negative thoughts of his brother the next morning when he shot up in bed, his face dripping with ice-cold water and Dean kneeling on the end of his bed, an empty cup in his hand. "Mornin' Sammy!" He yelled, a huge grin spreading across his face. Sam merely snarled at him and climbed out of bed, looking over at the other bed where their sister was still sleeping peacefully.

"Why the hell didn't she get one of those?" Sam moaned at his older brother.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh don't get all pouty Sammy." He smirked as he walked over to the sink and filled up the cup again. "She's getting the same. You just had to be first."

"Oh yeah? And why's that?"

"Because there's more chance of her killing me. Duh." Dean answered flatly. Sam shook his head and watched as he walked silently over to Kate's bed and dunked the water over her.

"Dean!'' Kate yelled, as she shot bolt upright in bed. "You son of a-"

"Before you finish that sentence.." He cut her off, backing away from her slowly. "Sam made me do it."

She glanced over at Sam, who was now drying his hair off with a towel, and raised an eyebrow. "Nothing to do with me." He stated simply.

"Oh well thanks for the support bro." Dean said, still walking backwards across the room away from Kate. "You wanna quit the smirking Kate, it's making me a little uncomfortable."

"So it should." She grinned at him. "You're really gonna pay for that one Dean."

Dean raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh yeah?" He grinned back at her. "And what exactly are you gonna do?"

"Oh you'll see." She said as she took another step towards him, causing him to move backwards into the bathroom where Sam was waiting. He grabbed Dean around the arms from behind before pushing him into the shower and turning it on. Both him and Kate laughing as the cold water gushed over him.

"Jeez, that's cold!" He yelled as he jumped out, his clothes dripping wet. "You gonna pass me a towel?" He asked Kate, still holding her stomach from laughing so hard. She picked up a towel from behind her and held it out to him. Dean took hold of her arm and pulled her towards him, grabbing her in a headlock and holding the shower over her head. She screamed while Dean shouted, both of them now soaked wet. Sam made a move to grab his brother's arm but only received the shower sprayed straight in his face. The three of them looked up as a loud bang sounded from the motel door. Dean turned off the shower and followed Sam and Kate into the main room.

"Hey!" A voice yelled from outside as there was another loud banging. "Manager! Open up!"

The three of them stood and looked between each other as he continued to knock. "Maybe someone should go talk to him?" Kate suggested.

"What are you crazy? Look at this place." Sam said as he gestured to the soaked room, filled with empty beer bottles and food wrappers from the past week. "Aside from it being trashed, how do we explain the flood damage?"

"Dude, don't exaggerate." He smirked to Sam. "I mean he knows that we're in here and it doesn't sound like he's planning on leaving until one of us goes out there."

Instinctively they both turned to Kate. "What? Why me?"

''You can distract him while we climb out of the bathroom window and run." Dean said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes at them and moved towards the door, muttering under her breath as she went. As she pulled open the door, the guy outside looked her up and down. "Something wrong?" She asked, giving him an innocent smile.

"A couple of people complained about noise." He grumbled. "Shouting and stuff."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Why are you all wet?" He asked her flatly, taking in the fact that she was fully clothed and dripping wet.

"I just took a shower." She answered him quickly, mentally slapping herself for the stupid answer.

"In your clothes?"

"I'm sorry sir, I don't question your showering habits do I? No. So I'd sort of appreciate it if you didn't ask about mine. It's a little creepy."

The guy just looked at her in astonishment for a couple of seconds before shaking his head. "Just keep it down, yeah?" He said to her as he turned to leave, muttering something that sounded like 'It's too early for this crap' as he went. She closed the door and looked back into the room where her brothers were holding onto each other as they lost their battle of trying to contain their laughter.

"Guys. So not funny." She smirked, giving them a slight glare.

"You.. You don't question his showering habits." Dean choked out between his laughs. "I'm sorry sis but where the hell did that come from?"

"I don't know.. Maybe growing up with you made me stupid." She said, working to keep her face straight.

"Oh come on. We all know I'm the brains of the outfit."

"Really bro?" Sam asked him, raising his eyebrows.

"Fine. Well then I'm obviously the looks."

A cough came from Kate who shook her head at him. "You're the one who carries the guns, Dean." She winked at him.

He rolled his eyes at them and made his way to the bathroom, dramatically slamming the door behind himself. "God, I hate you both!" He yelled from behind the door.

They both laughed and went to their bags to find some dry clothes to wear before they headed out on the road to find another hunt.

_Thanks for reading guys. :)_


	2. Chapter 2

Sam glanced up from his laptop screen as the motel door flew open. Kate and Dean walked into the room, both soaking wet and covered in mud. They had been to salt and burn some bones to finish up their latest case, Sam sitting it out with a sprained wrist. The minute they walked through the door, he could tell something was up, they both looked seriously pissed off. And not just the 'I've just dug up a grave in the rain' kind of pissed off. They'd had another fight about something.

After slamming the door closed, Dean went straight for the bathroom. "Why do you always get in the shower first?" Kate asked him.

"Why do you always complain?" He replied simply.

"Why do you always act like such a jerk?" She muttered as the door slammed closed.

Sam put down the laptop screen and watched as she dropped into the chair next to his and pulled off her muddy boots. "Everything alright?" He asked her.

"Yeah. He's just being a dick per usual." She said flatly.

"What's he done now?"

"Nothing. He just gets on my nerves sometimes." She mumbled. "Doesn't matter."

"What's going on with you two? All you've done is pick at each other all week over the stupidest stuff."

"Like what?"

"Everything. What you wanna watch on tv, who's going out to get food, who's the one cleaning guns. They're turning into serious fights now."

"Hey, it's not my fault he's an insensitive jerk."

Sam rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing on his laptop. The minute Dean came out of the bathroom, Kate walked straight past him and slammed the door behind herself. Dean shot her a glare over his shoulder and moved to sit down on one of the beds, turning on the tv. He looked over at Sam who was staring at him. "What?" He asked defensively.

"You gonna tell me what you're fighting about this time?"

"She's acting like a bitch. Not my problem, Sam."

Sam shook his head. "You two need your heads slamming together, I swear. This has been going on a week now, you're acting like a couple of kids."

"Why are you having a go at me? Tell her."

"I'm gonna tell both of you."

Dean shook his head and went back to watching the tv. Kate came out of the bathroom and took a seat at the table with Sam, picking up a magazine as she passed. Sam looked between the two of them and sighed. "So are you two going to talk or.." Neither of them answered him. "Look, whatever it is you're fighting about this time-"

"We're not fighting." Dean cut him off. "She's just being a brat."

"Yeah Dean, that's what it is." She said to him sarcastically.

"Look if you're gonna act like a bitch every time it's that time of the month, at least give us a heads up or something." He muttered.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You really are an idiot, you know that?"

"What the hell's up now?"

She shook her head and him and turned back to her magazine, not bothering to give him an answer. He muttered something under his breath and turned his attention back to the tv, none of them talking to each other for the rest of the night.

The next night, the three of them headed to a bar to get a few drinks before they left town. Sam and Kate sat at a table together while Dean went off to talk to his newest girlfriend. Kate went to the bar to get herself and Sam another drink when a tall, good-looking guy came over and leaned against the bar next to her. "Hey there." He said to her with a smile.

She turned to look at him and smiled back. "Hey."

"What's your name?"

"Kate."

"I'm Mike." She nodded and gave him another smile. "So you wanna get out of here?" He asked her with a smirk.

"No. She doesn't." A voice said from behind him. Kate looked over the guy's shoulder to see Dean standing behind him, a slight frown on his face.

"Dean, seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously." He said sternly. "You think I'm just going to let you go off with a total stranger?"

She sighed and shook her head, not having the energy at all to have this fight with him. "You know what Dean, screw you. I'm not in the mood for your crap tonight."

"My crap?" He scoffed. "Sweetheart, you're the one who's being difficult here. Not me."

"You're unbelievable." She muttered. "You know what, forget it." She said as she turned and walked out of the bar, heading back to the motel.

Sam and Dean arrived back at the motel about ten minutes after Kate. Sam walked in first, quickly followed by Dean who slammed the door closed behind himself. Kate rolled her eyes at his attitude. "You got something to say, Kate?" He asked her, sounding angry.

She stood up and looked at him. "Yeah, what the hell is your problem?"

"What's my problem? You think it's fine to just leave a bar with any guy? Are you stupid?"

"You know Dean, I'm surprised you could actually see anything that was going on in that bar past your latest slut's boob job."

"Oh she was a slut huh? 'Cause if you think about it, you weren't doing much different to her were you?"

"So I'm a slut now? Is that what you're saying?"

"Well you weren't exactly far off a one night stand there were you? So yeah, maybe you are!" He said, raising his voice.

"My god, Dean you are such a hypocrite! I'm not a child anymore so why don't you back off and stop treating me like one?!"

"Well maybe I will, when you stop acting like one!"

"You're the one who acts like a child Dean! I'm sick of taking crap for you about everything!" She yelled at him.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"Everything I do, Dean, you find something to pick at me for. I mean, I make a mistake on a hunt and you tell me I don't know what I'm doing. I finish a hunt and you tell me I'm being too reckless. You're forever yelling at me for talking to guys until you want me to tart myself up and flirt information out of them!"

"That's completely different and you damn well know it! You know, I hate to think where you'd be if I wasn't there to save your ass every time you did something stupid!"

"You see what I mean? You act like such a dick and then expect everyone to forget about it when you decide that you want to be nice again. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you."

"Don't you talk to me like that."

"Why? You're not in charge of me Dean. You're not dad. Quit trying to control me!"

''You wanna be a bitch, fine. Be one. But I'm not listening to it!" He said, making his way towards the door.

"Hey, you walk out that door, don't expect me to be here when you get back."

He turned to face her. "Fine. I hope you're not." With that, he slammed the door closed and walked away.

She shook her head to herself and grabbed her bag, shoving her stuff inside it. Sam, who was still standing beside the door, walked over to her. "Kate. Come on, you can't be serious."

"I'm sorry, but I can't spend another day with him. I'll rip his freaking head off."

"You'll sort it out. Just don't leave."

"Not this time Sam. I'm sick to death of him." She threw her bag over her shoulder and sighed before moving towards him and hugging him. "I'll call you tomorrow, yeah?"

He sighed lightly, knowing there was no way that she was going to change her mind now. "Take care of yourself."

"Yeah, you too." She gave him a slight smile and headed for the door.

Sam sat alone in the motel room for a couple of hours and waited for Dean to come back. When he did get back, he looked to be a lot calmer that he'd looked when he'd left. "Where is she?" He asked as he walked in, looking around the room.

"She's gone." Sam answered him flatly, not looking away from his laptop screen.

"Gone? Gone where?"

"I dunno.. She just took her stuff and left." He said simply.

"And you let her go?"

"Don't put this on me Dean. You were the one who told her to go. Not me."

Dean ran a hand through his short hair and sighed. "She's probably just got another motel room or something. She'll be back tomorrow."

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you Dean." Sam muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey just wanted to say thanks for the reviews I've had so far :) And thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!_

Sam rolled over in bed with a sigh and opened his eyes. He sat up and looked over at his brother who was still sleeping. He shook his head to himself as he thought back to the fight Dean and Kate had gotten into the previous night. He climbed out of bed and dressed before leaving the motel room to get them both some coffee.

On his way back to the motel, he pulled out his phone and called his sister. It rang a few times before she finally answered. _"Hello?" _She mumbled down the phone.

"Hey, did I wake you up?" He asked her, starting to feel a little guilty.

_"Sam?"_ She seemed to come around slightly_. "It's fine. You okay?"_

"Yeah, I'm good. Where are you?"

_"At a motel.. Two states over." _

His jaw dropped slightly, he'd honestly thought that she would have stayed in town long enough to think it over, not leave so soon. "How did you get two states over already?"

_"I uh.. I borrowed a car." _She said in an innocent voice, causing Sam to smirk.

"You sure you won't come back?" He asked her gently. "We can come and pick you up?"

She sighed. _"I'm sorry Sammy. But I can't."_

"How about you just give him a call then? Try and sort things out and then see how you feel huh?"

_"No. I'm not apologising to him this time Sam."_ She said flatly_. "It's always me, and I'm tired of it." _

Sam sighed in defeat. "Make sure you look after yourself, okay? You better call me."

_"Yeah.. You too." _

"Bye Kate." He hung up the phone and placed it back in his jeans before walking through the door of the motel where Dean was already up and dressed.

"Hey." He said as Sam walked in, giving him a quick smile as he handed him the coffee.

"Hey.. I just got off the phone with Kate."

"And?"

"She's two states over." He didn't miss the look of shock that washed over Dean's face as he said that. He knew he'd expected her to come back, even Sam was a little surprised that she'd gone.

"So does she want picking up or what?"

"She says not. I think she wants to go on her own for a while."

"Oh." He stopped. "Fine." He nodded and went back to putting his stuff in his bag, trying to make it look as though it didn't bother him. He hadn't meant for things to go as far as they had done the night before. He wasn't even sure why the two of them were so irritated with each other lately.

"So now what?" Sam asked him, pulling him from his thoughts.

"What?"

"Well are you gonna call her or what?"

"Hold on, why should I be the one who calls her? I'm not apologising, it's her fault too."

"Hey, I'm not taking sides here. And I'm not saying it's nothing to do with her either. But one of you has to make the first move Dean."

Dean shook his head. "Not me. Look, I'm sorry you're in the middle of this Sammy, I am, but I don't think this is one of those fights we're just gonna hug out. Not this time."

Sam sighed and sat down on his bed. "You're like a couple of kids, I swear. This is just gonna go on and on now because you're too much alike."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're both so stubborn."

"Yeah, whatever Sam." He muttered, his tone ending the conversation.

Five weeks passed, neither of them seeing Kate once. Sam had spoken to her a few times on the phone but never Dean. Dean refused to speak to Kate and Kate refused to speak to Dean, no matter how much Sam tried to push them back together. He knew Dean missed her, it was obvious. He could also tell that Kate missed Dean. They were just too hard-headed to apologise to each other.

"So you found us a hunt yet?" Dean asked, looking over at Sam.

"Well.. There might be a vamp case about six hours from here. Mutilated cows, two bodies so far."

"Sounds like a plan, love to chop some twilight." Dean smirked to himself, standing up to get his bag sorted. "Let's hit the road."

They arrived in town and began their research into where the vampire's nest would be. It didn't take them long to work it out, then they waited until dawn before they attacked. They went in through the front, 'machetes blazing' as Dean liked to say, and decapitated as many vampires as they could get to. Dean killed what he thought was the last vampire, turning around to see another one plunging a knife into his brother's stomach. He watched in horror as Sam dropped to the floor.

"Sam!" He yelled, running towards him and slicing his machete through the vampire's neck. He fell to his knees beside his brother and took his face in his hands. "Sammy! Can you hear me buddy?" His voice grew more panicked when he didn't get an answer. "Come on, we gotta get you out of here." He pulled Sam to his feet and dragged him to the car, placing him in the front seat and slamming his foot down on the pedal.

He glanced over at him nervously and saw his eyes were starting to close again. "Sammy. You gotta stay wake for me bro, okay? Listen to me. Sam? Sam?!" He shouted at him but still received no answer. "Damn it." He muttered to himself pressing his foot down harder, pushing his car as fast as it would go. He pulled up outside the hospital and ran from his car, shouting for someone to help his brother.

Everything from them pulling Sam from the car and putting him on a bed, to him sitting in the hospital's waiting room filling out paperwork was a total blur to him. He gave the papers back to the receptionist and walked towards Sam's room, dropping down into the chair beside his bed. He pulled his phone from his pocket, noticing how his hands were shaking, and dialed his sister's number. He felt slightly grateful when he heard the voicemail message, not sure on what he'd have said to her if she'd answered. He took a breath and waited for the beep.

"Hey Kate.. It's me. Look, I know that we've had our differences lately but.. I'm at the hospital. With Sam." He paused and let out a shaky breath, trying to keep his voice calm. "It's bad sis, he uh.. he.." His breath caught in his throat. "Please can you just get here? We need you, alright?" He finished off with the name of the hospital and the name they were under before hanging up and shoving the phone back into his jacket pocket.

He closed his eyes and rested his face in his hands, the doctor's words still swimming around in his mind. _"There's nothing we can do, you should probably prepare yourself for the worst."_


	4. Chapter 4

Dean glanced down at his watch. He'd been sitting in the same seat for the past six hours, not once looking away from his brother. His eyes were stinging with exhaustion as he stared at his brother, the doctor's words somehow making him feel as though he was sitting there and waiting for it to happen. He blinked hard and wiped the tears from his eyes and cheeks. "I'll be right back Sammy." He said quietly as he stood up, making his way to the door. He pulled it closed behind himself and let out a long breath before making his way to the coffee machine in the reception area. He absent-mindedly looked up as the doors next to the reception desk flew open, Kate running through them. She looked tired with bloodshot eyes, he could see that she had been crying.

Kate walked quickly into the waiting room, immediately seeing him. She began walking towards him, Dean closing the distance and meeting her in the middle of the room. Kate threw her arms around him and gripped the back of his shirt. He hugged her tightly as he rested his chin on her head. "I'm sorry Dean." She whispered into his chest, tears falling down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry."

Dean nodded. "I know.. I'm sorry too."

She pulled back from the hug and looked up at him. "Is he gonna be okay Dean?"

He opened his mouth to answer her but closed it again, not being able to find the right words to tell her what the doctor had said to him. She looked down and nodded, understanding what he meant when he didn't answer. She wiped away her tears as he pulled her towards him again. "It'll be okay, we can fix this.. There's always a way right?" He said quietly.

"Cas." She pulled back and looked at him.

"What?"

"We could call Cas. He could fix him, right?"

"Yeah.." Dean could have kicked himself for not thinking of that earlier. "Maybe.. Come on."

Dean grabbed her hand and pulled her towards Sam's room, closing the door behind them. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Hey Castiel, Sam's hurt. Badly. We need some help.." He opened one eye and looked around the room. "Please Cas.." He pleaded.

"Hello Dean, Kate." A deep voice said from behind him.

Dean whirled around to face him. "Cas.. Hey."

"What happened to him?"

"He was stabbed.. Can you help him?"

Castiel looked down at Sam and placed a hand on his head for a couple of seconds. "He'll be fine. He should wake up in a couple of hours."

"Thanks Cas. Really." Dean smiled at him, a feeling of relief washing over him.

"You're welcome." He smiled back at them. "I'll see you later." He replied before disappearing.

Dean and Kate took a seat on either side of Sam's bed, waiting for him to wake up. They sat in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say to the other. "So.. How've you been?" Dean asked her after a while.

She looked up at him and shrugged. "Okay, I guess.. How about you guys?"

"Yeah, okay.." He trailed off and sighed. "I really am sorry Kate. I've been an idiot with you."

"Dean, it's fine. We're good.. Besides, it wasn't all your fault. I was the one who walked out."

"Yeah. After I told you to go."

"Well how about we agree that you were a dick, and I was a bitch. And we were both to blame for letting a stupid fight go on for so long." She smirked.

Dean smiled. "Sure."

Sam woke up a couple of hours later to the sound of laughing. He slowly blinked open his eyes to look at his brother and sister. They were sitting on either side of his bed each holding a bag of sweets and aiming them at each others mouths. He watched them for a couple of minutes with a smile, it was nice to see them getting along again, he'd missed it. They both turned to look at him when he shifted slightly. "Hey Sammy." Dean said lightly. "How ya feeling?"

"Great actually.." He said, his voice slightly confused. Kate stood from her chair and hugged him. "It's good to see you sis, I've missed you."

"Yeah, you too." She pulled back and smiled. "You sure you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah, nothing hurts."

"Good. You want one then?" She asked, holding out the bag of candy to him. He laughed at her and took some.

"So how did I.. ya know.. not die?"Sam asked them curiously.

"Cas fixed you up." Dean answered him.

Sam smiled. "So when do we get out of here?"

"I dunno.. I guess we've got the 'It's a miracle, you've got an angel on your shoulder' speech to come from your doctor first." Dean laughed.

Sam was checked out of the hospital that night. He and Dean drove back to the motel in the Impala while Kate drove the car she had been using for the past five weeks. "So what's happening?" Sam asked Dean as they pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

"What d'ya mean?"

"With Kate, now that you're talking. She coming back on the road with us or..?"

"I dunno.. She hasn't mentioned it."

"Well you want her to, right?"

"Yeah, sure I do. But it's up to her, I mean we can't make her come with us Sam."

"True. But we can ask her."

Dean smiled but didn't answer him. As they pulled into the parking lot of the motel, they say that Kate was already there. She was standing by her car, going through the bag in the trunk. They climbed out of the car and walked up behind her, Dean grabbing a hold of her shoulders. She gasped loudly and turned quickly to face them. "Whoa, jeez Kate. It's just me." Dean laughed, slightly taken aback.

She let out a breath and smacked him on the arm. "God Dean, don't do that." She slammed the trunk closed and followed them towards their motel room.

As they walked in, Sam threw his bag down on the floor and walked over to the bathroom. "I'm gonna have a shower." He said lightly. He didn't know how much time they'd had to talk back at the hospital and figured he could give them some space to sort things out properly. As Sam closed the bathroom door, Dean lay down on one of the beds.

"So, what now?" He asked Kate as she took a seat on the end of the bed.

"What?"

"Are you coming with us or.."

She looked down at her lap for a second before answering him. "I dunno Dean.."

He rolled his eyes and stuck his arm out flat on the pillows next to his own. She smirked to herself and laid down next to him, smiling as he put an arm around her shoulder. "Sam misses you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Just Sam?" She asked him sarcastically.

Dean sighed dramatically. "And me too.. A little bit."

Kate grinned. "Hunting kinda sucks without you guys."

"So? You back on the team then?"

She let out a laugh and nodded. "You got it."

"Awesome." She punched him lightly in the chest and stood up.

When Sam came out of the bathroom he saw that Dean was still lying on his bed, he assumed he was sleeping, and Kate was looking out of the motel room's window. He walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder, causing her to jump. She dropped the curtain back to where it was and turned to look at Sam. "Everything alright?" He asked her, slightly concerned.

"Oh yeah, great." She answered quickly.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "What were you looking at?"

"Nothing, just.. Nothing." She muttered, walking over to the empty bed and sitting down on the edge, smiling at him.

Sam noted the nervous look on her face. He wondered if something had happened with Dean while he'd been in the bathroom. "So did you guys talk?" He asked her casually.

"Um yeah, I'm gonna hunt with you again."

Sam grinned. "That's great." He said enthusiastically.

She nodded and stood up. "I'm gonna take a shower." She said as she made her way to the bathroom.

"What's with her?" Dean muttered at the bathroom door closed, opening one of his eyes to look up at Sam.

"Huh?"

Dean sat up to look at him properly. "She seems.. Jumpy."

"Yeah.." Sam nodded. "I know what you mean."

"I mean did you see her on the way in here? The way she was looking over her shoulders all the time?"

"What are you thinking?"

"I dunno.. Pissed off the mafia?" He smirked to himself. "Demon on her ass maybe?"

"Don't you think she'd have mentioned that?"

Dean raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "Dude."

"Yeah, you're right." He muttered. "We'll sort it out tomorrow." He checked on the salt lines behind the door and window before climbing into his own bed and trying to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam's eyes flew open as the motel door slammed closed. He sat up in bed to see Dean walking into the room, three cups of coffee and a bag of food in his hands. "Mornin' sunshine." He grinned as he handed him his coffee.

Sam groaned and took the cup from him. "Where's Kate?"

"Bathroom." He muttered, taking a bite of a donut as he sat down across from Sam.

"So you haven't talked to her yet?"

Dean shook his head. "What do we even say to her? By the way sis, do you have a creepy ass psychotic monster on your ass because you seem a little jumpy lately?"

"C'mon Dean, something's up with her. I mean she's normally got it all together, more than us most of the time, but you saw her last night. She almost took your arm off when you made her jump. Something's got her spooked and-" He stopped talking as she walked out of the bathroom.

"What's up?" She asked looking between them, obviously noticing that something was off.

"We wanted to talk to you about something.." Sam started.

"What?" She asked, crossing the room and sitting down on the bed next to him, taking her coffee from the tray.

"You seem a little.. freaked out."

"What?"

"You're jumpy." He said flatly.

"Like something's after you." Dean added, his tone leaving her no room to argue.

She let out a nervous laugh and stood up. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine."

Dean looked at Sam who raised his eyebrows. Sam turned back to her and narrowed his eyes, he could clearly see that she was lying to them. "What's going on Kate?" Dean asked her seriously.

She looked down at the coffee cup in her hands for a second, trying to think of a good answer. Something she should have known her brothers would pick up straight away. She knew in her head that it was pointless trying to lie. Between them they knew her every expression, they could read her like a book. "There's a guy.." She started, noticing Sam immediately tense up and Dean ball his fists.

"Who?" Dean demanded.

"I don't know.. He's been like.. following me."

"You've got a freakin' stalker?!" Dean asked her, raising his voice slightly. "And you didn't think to pick up the phone and tell us?"

"I don't know Dean.. I thought it was nothing."

"How many times have you seen him?" Sam asked curiously, the worry clear in his voice.

"A few times. I was in this town working a job, pretty small, it was mostly just walking past him in the street or being in the same bar.. I thought it was just a coincidence at first, since it was such a small town. But then yesterday.."

"Yesterday?"

"I saw him again. He was outside the hospital, the town I was staying in was a good five hours back."

Sam and Dean looked at each other for a second before turning back to her. "Did you never bother to go ask what he wanted?"

"I told you, I wasn't even sure anything was going on until I saw him yesterday. And by then I had more important things to worry about." She said waving her hand at Sam who smiled slightly.

"Well listen to me. You see him again, you tell us okay?"

"Sure." She muttered.

"Kate." He pressed sternly.

"Okay Dean. I'll tell you."

Later that day they packed up their stuff and headed to another town. Kate sat in the backseat with her headphones in, Sam presumed to stop either of them asking any more questions. He glanced over his shoulder at her, he could hear the music coming from her headphones over the music on the radio. Confident she couldn't hear them, he turned back to Dean. "What're we gonna do about this guy Dean?"

Dean looked at him for a second before returning his attention to the road. "Well he must be following her for a reason right? So if he wants her that bad, he'll show up again."

"And what exactly are we supposed to do then, huh? Throw holy water at him and hope he's just possessed? We have no idea who he is or what he wants."

"We know he wants our sister. That's enough for me to put a bullet in his skull."

Sam stared at him for a few seconds, his mouth hanging open. "Dean, you can't just shoot him. I mean, we don't even know if he's human. We at least need to find out who he is before you waste him."

Dean merely grunted in response and pulled the car into another motel parking lot. The case didn't take them long to sort out. It was the simple salting and burning of a ghost, haunting one of the local houses. After destroying the corpse, the three of them walked back to the car. Dean more stumbling back having been thrown around by the ghost, being smashed into trees and gravestones.

As soon as they arrived back at the motel room, he dropped straight down onto one of the beds, letting out a long pained groan. Kate looked over at Sam and smirked. "Dude, don't be so dramatic." He laughed, smacking Dean's boot as he passed the bed.

"You try being used as a ghosts punching bag, Sam. It's not fun."

Kate laughed at him. "I'm gonna go pick up some food. Usual?" She asked them.

They both nodded at her. "Want me to come with?" Sam asked her.

"Nah, I'll be fine." She smiled at him as she left the room, crossing the parking lot towards the nearest diner. As she walked over the road, she turned and saw the guy who had been following her again. He was leaning against a wall on the corner of the street, watching her. He looked straight at her for a couple of minutes before pushing himself off the wall and turning the corner, out of sight.

She looked back towards the motel, debating whether to go after him or not. Glancing over to where he had been, she decided to go after him. She ran over the road and around the corner, slowing down into a fast walk as she continued down the street. Stopping at a corner she breathed heavily. She shook her head to herself, realising he'd gone, and turned to go back to the diner. As she began walking back up the street, someone grabbed her by the shoulders from behind and pulled her into a back alley, shoving her hard against the wall.

_Thank you for reading and for the reviews I've had. Hope you're enjoying it so far, please review and let me know what you think! :D Have a great week guys :)_


	6. Chapter 6

Kate let out a slight grunt as her back pounded against the cold, stone wall. She looked at the guy standing in front of her dead in the face, her jaw clenched. He was tall with black hair and dark eyes. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath, mentally gearing herself up for a fight. "Hello Kate." He said to her, his voice low and threatening to her.

She gave him a small smile, determined not to let him think she was afraid. "So you know my name huh? Is that supposed to be impressive or something?" She muttered sarcastically.

"Oh I know a hell of a lot more about you than just your name sweetheart. Trust me."

"Oh you do? So you know about my two big, quite protective brothers then do you?" She grinned slightly at him. "'Cause I can tell you, they won't like this."

He raised an eyebrow to her. "Oh is that so?" He asked sarcastically.

"Trust me buddy, they're gonna kick your ass for this."

His hand moved from her shoulder to her throat. He squeezed hard until things started to go black for her. When he eventually loosened his grip, he pulled her forwards slightly before slamming her even harder into the wall. "Sweetheart, I can kill you whenever I want. So don't try and get smart with me." He growled before throwing her to the floor and walking away.

She coughed and took a breath, getting herself together before walking back out of the alley and looking around the street. Not seeing him anywhere, she ran back towards the motel room.

Sam lay on his bed, flicking through the tv channels as he waited for Dean to finish in the shower so he could take one. He picked up his phone and glanced at the time, Kate had been gone longer than he liked to say that she was only supposed to be walking across the street and back, something she'd normally have had done in five minutes. The motel door swung open as Kate walked in breathing heavily, she slammed the door closed and locked it. She leant her back against it and took a couple of deep breaths to get her breathing back to normal. Sam stood up and walked quickly over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder and leaning down so that he was level with her face. "Kate? What's happened?" He asked, working to say calm. "You alright?"

She looked up at him, seeing the amount of concern in his face. She swallowed hard and nodded as she walked over to Dean's bed and sat down, picking up his bottle of whiskey as she passed. "I saw him again. The guy."

His eyes moved from her face to her neck where there was still a red mark covering it. "What did he do to you?" He asked as he walked to the bathroom door and pounded on it with the side of his fist.

A couple of minutes later Dean walked out in just a pair of jeans, towel drying his hair. "Dude, there. It's free." He muttered to Sam as he grabbed himself a clean shirt from his bag and pulled it over his head. He looked over at Sam who was sitting back down on the bed facing where Kate was sitting. He looked from him to Kate, suddenly noticing the look on her face. "You okay?" He asked, moving to sit down next to Sam.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She mumbled, taking another drink of whiskey.

Dean frowned in confusion and looked at Sam. "She saw him again."

"Where?" He asked, looking straight at her.

"He was standing on the corner down there." She said, nodding in the direction of the corner.

"And.. Did he say anything to you?"

"He walked off, so I followed him."

"You did what? You played follow the psycho? Smart move sis, really."

"Well I wanted to know who he was." She said defensively. "So I walked after him and he like dragged me into this back alley and slammed me into the wall.." She trailed off when she saw the murderous looks on her brother's faces. "Guys I'm fine."

"What did he say to you?" Sam asked her.

"He knew my name. Said he knew other stuff about me too."

"What stuff?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, he never said.. So I asked him if he knew that I had two psychos for brothers and that you were going to kick his ass." She finished lightly. Dean smiled slightly.

"So what happened to your neck? Looks like he throttled you." Sam said.

"Yeah.. That was him making his point that he could apparently kill me whenever he felt like it. Then he left."

"So he was human then?" Dean asked her.

"Yeah, I think so.."

Dean shook his head and looked at Sam. "Humans man." He muttered. "So what now?"

She ran a hand over her tired face and sighed. "Now nothing. He'll be back."

"Yeah, well next time we'll be ready for him." Sam growled, the anger clear in his voice.

Kate looked slightly taken aback by his tone. Dean glanced up at her. "You sure you have no idea who he is?"

"I've told you, no idea."

"Think back, you don't owe anyone money or anything right? 'Cause you know you can tell us."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Dean."

"Alright, alright. Just making sure." Sam stood up and walked over to the window. He didn't see anyone outside and closed the shades over, heading to the bathroom to take a shower. Once the door slammed closed Dean looked over at Kate who was still drinking his whiskey. "You sure you're okay?" He asked her cautiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bit.. ya know.. shaken up." She muttered, giving the bottle a slight shake at her last words.

He gave her a small smile and walked over to where his boots and socks were, picking them up and sitting back down across from her, pulling them on. "We'll find him Kate, don't worry about it. I won't let him hurt you." He told her seriously.

She nodded and smiled. "I know." He squeezed her on the shoulder as he stood up and made his way towards the door. "Be careful."

"Sure." He said, pulling on his jacket and walking over the street to get them food.

When the door closed, Kate stood up and walked over to it, putting her hand on the lock. Without locking it, she moved her hand away and laughed to herself slightly. "Come on Kate, get a grip." She muttered. Dean came back with food to find Sam and Kate sitting and watching the tv. He gave them their food and sat down with them, laughing along with them at the bad horror movie they were watching.

Sam woke the next morning to a loud bang, something that wasn't unusual for him, his sibling's always seemed to make more noise when he was trying to sleep. Opening his eyes he saw his sister bouncing through the motel door with a huge smile on her face. Dean, who was sitting on the end of his bed lacing up his boots, stood up and raised his eyebrows at her. "What're you so stoked about?" He asked her.

"Oh nothing.. I was just thinking how lucky I was to have an awesome brother like Sam." She smirked at him, placing the coffees down on the table.

"Oh yeah?" He ran at her and wrestled her to the floor, tickling her. "Care to add to that statement huh?"

"Dude, stop!" She yelled.

He stopped and raised his eyebrows at her again. "Well?"

"I'm super stoked to have awesome brothers like Sam and you. Happy?"

"Ecstatic." He grinned, pulling her back to her feet as he stood up. "And besides, we all know I'm the better looking brother right?" He said, winking at Sam who simply threw a pillow at his head.

"So, what've we got planned for today then?" Kate asked, sitting down on one of the beds.

"Looking for a job I guess." Sam said.

"You're too much fun Sam." She laughed. "So you got anything?"

"Not yet, we can look though right?"

"Totally." Dean smirked.

Kate smiled at them and headed towards the bathroom, pulling the door closed behind herself. Sam climbed out of bed and walked over to get his coffee. "You let her go out alone?" He asked Dean, sounding slightly surprised.

"Dude, she went across the street. To get coffee. At seven in the morning." Sam sighed. "Look, we'll find him Sammy, we will. I'm not gonna let him hurt her."

Sam smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Later on that day, as Sam was at the library doing research and Dean was out getting food, Kate was in the motel room alone. She stood by the window and looked around outside. She was trying to keep it cool for Sam and Dean but inside she was freaking out like crazy. She had no idea who this guy was or what he wanted with her, and for some reason that creeped her out more than she thought. She was pretty shocked about how much it actually bothered her, she'd never really been the type to freak out about things easily but there was just something about this guy that made her really uneasy. Her phone rang from the table, she didn't recognise the number calling. She moved the phone to her ear and answered. "Hello?" She heard breathing on the other end but no one spoke. "Hello?" She asked again but still received no answer. She rolled her eyes and hung up, dropping the phone onto the bed.

A couple of minutes later it rang again. She let out a deep sigh and answered it. "What?" She could hear breathing again, deeper and more obvious than last time. "Who is this?" The phone went dead.

It rang again, by now she was getting annoyed. "Listen buddy, you wanna play games? Why don't you pick one that's not so childish yeah?" She said angrily down the phone.

_"Kate?"_ A confused voice answered her.

She stopped. "Bobby?"

_"Yeah. Who'd you think it was?"_

"No one, doesn't matter. What's up?"

_"Just thought I'd check in with you three, make sure you're staying out of trouble."_

She smiled slightly. "Yeah Bobby, we're fine."

_"You sure?" _He asked skeptically.

"Uh-huh, I'll call you later."

_"Alright." _She hung up the phone and sat down staring at it, running her hands through her hair.

A few minutes later Dean banged through the door and looked around the room quickly. "You alright?" He asked her, sounding alarmed.

"Yeah, awesome." She frowned in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Bobby just called me. Said you yelled down the phone when you answered."

"Oh, that."

"Yeah that, what happened?"

"That guy called me a couple of times, not a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Kate, that's what they said at the beginning of when a stranger calls and look how that ended." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well you know what I mean."

"Yes Dean." She said sarcastically.

"Wait, so you've got his number?"

"Yeah.."

"Give me the phone."

"Dean."

"Give me the phone." He repeated sternly.

She shook her head and handed him the phone. He called the number and held the phone to his ear, slamming it down a couple of minutes later on the table. "No answer?" Kate asked him sarcastically.

He glared at her and sat down on one of the beds. He looked over at where he'd slammed the phone down and sighed. If he was honest, he'd like nothing more than to put a bullet straight through the guy's face right then and there. He'd be lying if he said this whole thing didn't freak him out, but it more pissed him off. Pissed him off that a guy thought he could get away with playing mind games with his sister. Dean knew one thing, whoever he was, it wasn't going to end well for him. He and Sam would make sure of that.


	7. Chapter 7

The next three weeks passed by slowly for them. They'd been stuck in the same crappy town, in the same crappy motel room and working the same crappy job. Kate had been seeing the same guy following her practically everywhere she went. He would be hanging around outside the room in his car or drinking in the same bar or calling her phone and hanging up without saying anything. Since telling her that he could kill her when he pleased, he hadn't spoken to her again. Dean and Sam had looked around everywhere for him, they'd checked everywhere but found nothing about who he was or why he would be after her in the first place.

Sam glanced out of the window, watching as his sister walked over the parking lot and away from the motel room. He was so worried about her and he knew Dean was too, no matter how much he tried to cover it. He knew she was lying to them when she said she wasn't afraid, probably because she didn't want them to worry about her. Not that it stopped them. If they ever did get a hold of him, the first thing Dean would do would be putting a bullet in him. The more he'd been thinking about the situation, the less it made sense to him. Neither he or Dean had seen this guy or been around when he had called Kate. They had no lead on who he might be or why he wanted her. They were pretty sure that he wasn't a ghost or a demon which just added to the list of things that didn't make sense. "Hey, Dean.." He started quietly, hesitating to continue.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked him nervously as he looked over at him.

"It's just.. I was thinking.." He sighed. "Only Kate has seen this guy.."

"Well it is Kate he's stalking Sam." He answered, still confused as to what his brother was getting at.

"No, I mean you'd think that with all the times she's seen him around and stuff, we might have seen him too. We've been looking for him for three weeks now and we still have nothing."

"So what are you saying?"

"Maybe.. Maybe, he's not there."

"Wait, what? You think she's making it up?"

"No. God no. I'm saying.. Maybe it's only Kate that can see him."

Dean looked at him for a minute, thinking it over. "So you think she's crazy?"

"Dean, you've said it yourself, we're all gonna lose it eventually. I mean the things we've seen.. And we haven't seen Kate for the past five weeks, we don't know what's gone on with her all that time."

"Look, I admit I've said that but I didn't mean that we'd start seeing people who aren't there. We don't even know if that can happen? I mean.." He trailed off, not being able to think of another argument. Everything Sam was saying made sense, he just didn't want to accept it. "We need to talk to her."

Sam nodded. "That's gonna be a fun conversation." He muttered.

When Kate came back to the motel, Sam and Dean were sitting at the table waiting for her. She walked further into the room, neither of them saying anything to her. Sam nodded at Dean who frowned and nodded back at him. He looked to the floor before glancing back to her. "Kate, we need to talk to you about something." He started, his voice soft.

"What?" She asked, pulling off her jacket.

"About that guy." She looked up at him. "Kate, are you sure that he's.."

"What?" She asked him curiously.

"It's just.. only you've see him and.. well.. this job can get to you.."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I'm crazy?"

"Look, we didn't say that."

"No, you think he's in my head." Neither of them looked at her. "Unbelievable." She muttered to herself, looking away from them.

"Kate.."

"Look I know it sounds crazy, okay? Trust me, I know. But I'm telling you, this guy is real." She looked at him, tears glistening in her eyes. "You have to believe me."

Dean opened his mouth to answer her but closed it again. Sam looked down at his lap, refusing to look her in the face. He hated himself for even thinking it but the pieces fit. "Kate, we can get you help alright, it's all gonna be okay." Sam said gently.

She scoffed and ran a hand over her face. "Help? I don't need a shrink Sam, I need my brothers." She said, raising her voice slightly in frustration. She looked between them again, still getting no response. "You know what, forget it." She muttered, grabbing her jacket and heading to the door.

"Whoa, where are you going?" Dean asked her but she had already slammed the door closed. "Awesome." He muttered. "Now what?"

"I dunno.." Sam answered him honestly. "We'll let her cool off, she'll come back."

Dean nodded. He knew she'd come back when she was through being pissed at them. She had a right to be pissed, they'd basically just told her that she was insane, something Dean had yet to wrap his own head around. She'd alway seemed so calm and together about things, even when they were tough. If you'd have asked him, he'd have put money on himself or Sam loosing their marbles way before she did. Sighing heavily, he prayed to God that they were wrong and she was fine, but he knew things were never that easy for them. They either had a sister who was hallucinating and seeing a dude who wasn't there, or they had a sister who had a crazy stalker playing mind games with her. Either way, the outcome was going to suck.


	8. Chapter 8

Kate slammed her empty glass down on the bar and ran a hand through her hair. "Rough night?" The guy behind the bar asked her, filling up the glass.

"Something like that." She muttered, taking another drink. She glanced at her phone, knowing that she should get back before her brothers started to freak out about where she was. She didn't really blame them for thinking she'd gone off the deep end, sometimes she wished she had, it seemed less creepy than having some weirdo stalker after her. She downed the shot and dropped ten dollars down on the bar before she walked out of the door. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself as the cold air hit her. Looking over the parking lot, she noticed a bettered black car parked up. "Oh you've got to be kidding me." She muttered to herself, walking over and stopping beside it. There was a loud crack as something collided with the back of her head, sending her falling to the dusty road.

Kate slowly opened her eyes, frowning as she looked around the unfamiliar room. She made a move to sit up from the bed that she was lying on but was stopped by the handcuffs around one of her wrists. She groaned as she pulled out a hairclip from the pocket of her jeans and began working on getting free. Once she was finished she stumbled to her feet, putting a hand to the back of her head and feeling the blood in her hair. She grimaced and pulled open the door, being met with a hard punch to the face. She fell to the floor and put a hand to her cheek. "What the hell?" She muttered.

"Hey Kate." The guy standing over her said, grabbing a handful of her hair and dragging her across the room, throwing her down to the floor and giving her a hard kick to the stomach.

"Alright, who the hell are you?" She half yelled up at him. He bent down and punched her in the face again. He took advantage of her being slightly dazed and took a hold of her arms, taping her wrists together, followed by her ankles, so she couldn't escape.

He smirked as she glared at him. "Don't you remember me, Kate?" He laughed slightly at her black expression. "Think back, a few years back. In Ohio. You and your husband, you got me thrown in jail."

"My what? Who? Buddy, you've got the wrong person." She breathed out.

"No. I remembered your name. Your car." She moved her head up to look at him. "So I did some research, don't stay in one place for long do you? So then I talked to a few people who'd actually seen you. Trust me, there weren't too many of them.. But I found out your name's not Sara. And you don't have a husband called Jason. Because your real name's Kate Winchester. And your husband, or brother as I now know he is, is Dean."

Realisation suddenly washed over her face.

_"Dude, this is so wrong on so many levels." Kate smirked up at her brother as he rang the doorbell of the house in front of them._

_"Oh come on, where's the fun in always pretending that we're feds huh?" _

_"But pretending we're married? New low brother." She grinned._

_A tall, dark-haired man answered the door. "Yeah?"_

_"Hi!" Dean said in a cheery voice. "My name's Jason, this is my wife Sara." He smirked at the glare she shot him as he put an arm around her shoulders. "We just moved in down the street, can we come in?"_

"Remember when we first met? When you pretended you were together? Because you thought I was in danger right? That's why you came to talk to me? You thought something was after me."

"You're a monster." She whispered, refusing to look him in the eye.

He looked at her for a minute before answering. "I don't know about that.."

"Yeah, how many people have you killed huh?"

"A lot more since that night, that night you let me go. You remember?"

_Kate ran towards the warehouse and kicked down the door. As she ran inside, her eyes went wide. There were dead bodies everywhere. Blood all over the walls and floor and covering the guy who stood in the middle of it all. "Don't move." She warned, pointing her gun at him._

_As he looked up, her grip on the gun tightened. "You?"_

_He laughed. "Oh no, you caught me." He said sarcastically._

_"What the hell did you do?" She asked him, a horrified look on her face as she aimed the gun towards his head. She heard the door open and bang closed behind her. Knowing it was Dean, she didn't bother turning around. _

_"You gonna shoot me?" He challenged her. _

_"My god, you're a psycho." She said quietly, her eyes scanning the room of bodies. She heard sirens in the distance and lowered the gun with a smirk. "I hope they fry your ass for this." She muttered coldly._

_"Shoot me." He demanded. "Or I promise, I'll be coming back for you." _

"I told you that I'd come back for you." She stayed silent. "You lost a friend that night didn't you?" He smirked. "What was her name? Amy? Ashley?"

"Abbie." She cut him off sharply. "She was fifteen." She felt tears stinging in her eyes, threatening to fall. She clenched her jaw, determined not to show weakness to him.

_Kate walked through the muddy field, stopping suddenly and dropping to her knees. She felt someone crouch down behind her, strong hands on her shoulders. "Why did it have to be her Dean? She was just a kid." She whispered, tears falling down her cheeks._

_"I'm sorry sis." He answered quietly, looking forwards at the gravestone in front of them._

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why aren't you still in prison?"

"I got out." He stated simply.

"Released early on good behaviour?" She asked him sarcastically.

"Not exactly." He smiled as he gave her another kick in the stomach. He dropped to his knees and leant over her, giving her a hard slap around the face with the back of his hand. "What are you doing?" She whispered, the fear now clear in her voice.

He smirked as he ripped her dark gray vest completely open down the front. She struggled under his weight but he was too strong for her. "You're not going anywhere. I can do whatever the hell I please with you." He punched her hard in the face again. "This is for all those years I spent in prison. Because of you." He spat out at her, punching her in the face repeatedly. He got off her and dragged her semi conscious body back to the room she had come out of, giving her a few more kicks before locking the door and leaving her alone.

As the door slammed closed, Kate tried to sit up and free her hands from the tape but she couldn't find the strength. She let a tear slide down one of her cheeks, slowly drifting unconscious to the sound of her phone ringing in the other room, praying her brothers would find her. Soon.

_Hey I just want to say a massive thank you to all of you who took the time to review so far :) _


	9. Chapter 9

When Kate came around she was lying in the same place she'd been when she had blacked out. She banged her head lightly against the floor in frustration and pushed herself into a sitting position, once again trying to pull the tape from her wrists. She managed to pull one hand out and then yanked the other free. Once her hands were free, it wasn't hard for her to free her legs. She stumbled to her feet and sighed heavily when she realised she was only wearing a bra. Leaning against the door she heard nothing and pushed it open before walking slowly into the next room. She found where her phone had been thrown against the wall and picked up, breathing a sigh of relief that it was actually working. There were almost a hundred missed calls coming from either Sam or Dean. She called her voicemail and listened to a few of their freaked out messages before hanging up and calling Sam's number. As she went to put the phone to her ear, someone grabbed the back of her hair and ripped out a chunk before throwing her to the floor and grabbing the phone from her. "Who are you trying to call Kate?" He laughed.

"Bite me." She mumbled into the floor.

He smirked and pulled her back to her feet by her hair, pushing her face first into the wall. She took a breath against it and pushed off it, turning and punching him in the face over and over, knocking him to the floor and kicking him until there was nothing left in her. She stepped back and looked down at his blood covered face before breaking into a run towards the door. As she ran past him he held out an arm and grabbed her ankle, causing her to fall forwards and crack her head against the sharp corner of the table, making a nasty gash on her forehead. She turned on her back and watched as he stood over her and began to beat her again, this time worse than the previous night.

Once again, when he had finished he dragged her back into the room and taped up her ankles and wrists. "You know, I was going to kill you but this.." He gestured between the two of them. "..this is way more fun."

"You're fucking psychotic." She spat at him.

"Maybe I am. But you're still the one tied up. Your opinion's not really important is it?" He grinned as he punched her unconscious in the side of the head and slammed the door closed behind himself.

Dean shook his head as Sam hung up his phone and looked at his watch for the third time in the last-minute. "Sam. We've tried her like a billion times, she's not gonna answer."

"Then what? Huh?"

"Look, just chill for a second. I'm sure she's okay." Dean said in a lame attempt to stop his brother worrying so much. He took a steady breath and calmed himself before he started to freak out himself.

"Something's definitely wrong." He said flatly.

Dean sighed heavily. "We don't know that."

"Dean, she's been gone hours."

"So maybe she's at a bar? She's pissed at us. And come on, it's not like it's the first time she's stayed out all night is it?" He reasoned, not sure anymore on whether he was trying to convince himself or his brother.

"It's the first time she's done it without bothering to text. She didn't take any money with her, none of her stuff. She's not going to have gotten far on ten bucks."

"Alright, track her phone. We'll find out where she is and go find her."

Sam did as Dean said. "Says she's at this address." He muttered, moving his laptop around to show Dean. He frowned and glanced up at Sam.

"Let's go." He said, grabbing his keys and heading for the door.

They pulled up outside the house and walked over to the door. Sam picked the lock before they walked silently inside, finding it empty. Sam nudged Dean's arm and nodded towards the floor where there was blood splattered over the white carpet. Giving each other a quick nod, they pulled out their guns and walked further into the house. Dean crouched down and picked up a thick lock of blonde hair. He felt his stomach physically turn at the thought of it possibly being ripped from his sister's head. He glanced over at Sam who was standing in the doorway of the next room, his mouth hanging open and gun gripped loosely in his hand. "What's wrong?" Dean asked, quickly crossing the room to him.

"I-" He stopped and shook his head.

He glanced inside, where there were pictures of Kate pinned to the wall. "Well Sam, I don't think she was making him up." He said slowly. There was research on the three of them, copies of their police records, their IDs, lists of places they'd been and addresses they'd stayed at. Dean picked up one of the photos and looked at it carefully. "Jesus Christ, how long has he been following her?" He mumbled to himself.

"How the hell would he get half of this crap?" Sam whispered.

Dean opened his mouth to answer but stopped at the sound of a door slamming upstairs. They broke into a run and followed the sound. As they ran into one of the rooms, they found a guy standing with his back to them. He turned to face them as they entered the room. Sam noticed how Dean narrowed his eyes to look at him. "Hey Dean, you remember me?" He smirked.

"You son of a bitch." He whispered, running at him and punching him in the face, knocking him to the floor. He knelt over him and punched him again and again before gripping the front of his shirt and pulling him forwards slightly. "What the fuck do you want with her? Huh?!" He yelled in his face.

The guy smirked up at Dean. "I told you I'd come back for her."

"Where is she?" Dean practically growled at him, his tone murderous.

"Dean." Sam said from the doorway to the next room. Dean looked up as Sam walked inside slowly. The guy laughed as Dean stood up and looked down at him with disgust. He picked up his gun from the floor, aiming it at the guys face, and pulled the trigger.

Dean walked into the small room to find Sam gently pulling tape from Kate's wrists. He looked at her, lying on her side with her face covered by her hair. Dean knelt beside her and gently pulled her shoulder around until she was lying on her back. He reached out and moved the hair from her face, his eyes going wide when he saw the blood covering her pale face. Sam took one look at her face and walked out of the room. Dean pulled off his overshirt and carefully put it on her before picking her up and carrying her downstairs. He walked back into the main room to find Sam leaning against the door frame, looking at the pictures of their sister on the wall. Dean placed her down on the couch and reached out a hand, placing it on Sam's shoulder. "Sammy.." He began gently.

Sam turned to face him and without saying anything, held out his arm to Dean. He took the item from Sam's hand and frowned. It was Kate's shirt, the one that had been ripped off her. "Dean you don't think he-"

"No." Dean cut him off sharply. He could feel his own tears forming at just the thought of anyone hurting his baby sister, especially like that. "Come on Sammy. Take her back to the motel, fix her up. I'll be back soon."

Sam shook his head. "She needs a hospital Dean." He said quietly.

Dean sighed and nodded."I'll be there soon alright."

Sam gently picked up his sister and walked towards the door, Dean opening it for them. "Come with us."

"Sammy, someone has to clean up here before someone finds the body."

"Dean please, you can come back." Dean looked up at Sam, his face pleading with him to go with them. He knew Sam didn't want to take her to the hospital alone.

"Alright go, I'll meet you at the car in a minute." He said, closing the door behind them.

Sam walked quickly to the car and carefully managed to get Kate into the backseat. He climbed into the front and leant over, placing a hand on her bloody cheek. "Kate, I'm sorry.." He whispered. "You gotta stay with us baby.. It's gonna be fine. I promise.. Everything's gonna be alright.."


	10. Chapter 10

Sam sat in the waiting room of the hospital while the doctors took care of Kate's injuries. "He knew who you were." He said after about an hour of watching Dean pace up and down the floor in front of him. "Who was he Dean?"

Dean sighed heavily and dropped into the chair beside his. "Kate and I were on a hunt, back when you were at stanford. There were these murders, we thought it might be something." He stopped for a minute as he thought back. "Anyway Kate met this chick, she was just a kid, no parents or anything, living a pretty crappy life really.. Kate helped her out." Sam smiled and nodded. "We were in town for about a month, the two of them got pretty close."

"So what happened?" Sam asked him.

"More and more people started dying, but we couldn't work out what was going on. But then we did."

"So what was it?" He frowned, not following what he was talking about.

"Not what, who."

"Him?"

Dean nodded. "He killed her. Kate ended up pointing a gun at his face but, she didn't do it. She let the cops take him."

"Why?"

"I dunno, that's something she's never told me. I mean she was only eighteen, shared her feelings even less back then than she does now. I guessed because killing him was what he wanted her to do.." He shrugged. "But she was really broken up about her death. The last thing he said to her was that if she didn't kill him, he'd come back for her. Guess he wasn't kidding." They sat in silence for a few minutes. "I should have killed him myself."

"Dean, you can't put this on yourself."

"Sam, a psycho murderer gave her a death threat. And I let him go."

"If you wouldn't have let the cops take him they'd probably have put the murders on you instead." Sam reasoned. He noticed how his brother's fists were balled, his knuckles white.

"What the hell is taking so long?!" He said loudly, standing up in frustration and shaking his head, completely oblivious to the stares he received from the other people sitting around them. "I could have fixed her up quicker myself." He muttered, running a hand over the back of his head.

Just as Sam opened his mouth to answer, Kate's doctor walked over to them. "Kate Riley's family?" He asked them.

"Yeah, we're her brothers." Dean said quickly.

"Well, your sister will be fine. She has a broken wrist, broken ribs and a few of her cuts were deep enough to need stitches, particularly the one on her forehead. But other than that it's mostly just cuts and bruises." He told them. "She's sleeping now but depending on how she feels when she wakes up, it shouldn't be too long before you can take her home."

"Can we see her?" Sam asked.

"Sure." He smiled and turned to lead them towards her room, stopping at the door. "I should warn you, she's pretty beaten up."

"It's fine." Dean said to him. "Wouldn't be the first time we've had to see her in that state." He added quietly.

The doctor opened the door for them and let them inside. "I'll leave you to it." He said before closing the door and leaving them alone. They took a seat on either side of the bed and looked over her. She had two nasty black eyes, bruising down one of her cheeks, a busted lip and a gash on her forehead being held together by stitches. There were other cuts and bruises covering her arms and face as well as the bandage around her wrist. Sam looked at her in horror, feeling the tears stinging in his eyes. He took hold of her hand in his and gently ran his thumb over one of the cuts on it. "Why is it always her?" He whispered.

Dean opened his mouth to answer but couldn't find the words. He looked from the helpless, broken face of his baby brother to the beat up face of his baby sister. It tore him apart inside to see them like this. "Sammy? You gonna be alright?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, we'll we fine." He nodded. Dean walked around the bed and gave his brother a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before gently kissing Kate's forehead and leaving the room, heading back to the house to clean up.

As Dean walked into the house, he noticed immediately that something was wrong. He grabbed his gun and ran upstairs, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw that the body had gone. "Oh god." He muttered. There was no sign that anything had happened there, no blood or broken furniture. He walked back downstairs, contemplating the far out chance that he was in the wrong house, and walked towards the room where the research on them had been. He slowly pushed open the door to see Castiel looking intently at a couple of the pieces of paper.

"Hello Dean." He said flatly, not looking up.

"Cas?" Dean sighed in relief and put his gun back into his jeans. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought maybe you'd need some help in clearing up here." He said simply. "How is your sister?" For someone who rarely showed emotion, Dean didn't miss the slight hint of concern in the angel's question.

"She'll be fine." He said as he picked up one of the pictures from the table. It was of Kate crossing a parking lot somewhere, he looked closer and saw the side of his own face in the background. "How could I not have noticed any of this?" He whispered to himself, throwing it back to the table.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for this Dean." Castiel said quietly.

"Cas, I'm supposed to watch out for her. Not let her get stalked, kidnapped and beat to hell."

"You know Dean, no one blames you for this but you. You and your brother saved her." Dean looked up at him and sighed. "Go, I'll finish this."

"Thanks Cas." He said, turning towards the door to leave. He turned back and looked at him. "You should come with me, I know she'll want to see you." Castiel nodded, finishing clearing up the last room before meeting him at the car.

Kate gasped awake, flinching at the pain that shot through her ribs as she tried to sit up. Her vision was slightly blurred but she could see a figure standing over her, they were clutching her hand in a tight grip. She took a deep breath to steady her breathing and blinked hard so that things became more focused. "Sam?" She whispered. He was sitting on the side of her bed, a concerned frown on his usually calm face.

"Yeah Kate, it's me.. Hey, look at me. You okay?" He asked her, placing his hand gently on her cheek. She nodded slowly and tried to sit up straighter, another sharp pain shooting through her middle. "Whoa, take it easy. You're pretty beaten up."

"Where is he?" She asked him suddenly, the panic clear in her voice.

"Don't worry, Dean took care of him."

"Took care of like.. took care of?"

"Well you aren't going to see him again, trust me on that." He stayed silent for a couple of minutes before looking straight at her. "Kate, sweetheart he didn't.. I mean he.. he.." He trailed off, not being able to bring himself to ask her.

She understood what he was getting at. "No."

He breathed out a sigh and nodded. "You sure you're okay?" She nodded at him. Sam raised his eyebrows at her, the small nod quickly changed to a shake as she hung her head and tried to hold back the tears. Sam quickly moved to sit beside her, leaning on the pillows and pulling her into his arms, her tears soaking through his shirt. "It's okay Kate, it's all gonna be okay. No one's going to hurt you again, I promise." His heart broke to see his baby sister like that. He held her until she'd stopped crying and finally fell back into a restless sleep. He sat back in his own chair and held her hand, watching her sleep with tears in his eyes.

He jumped slightly Dean walked through the door, quickly followed by Castiel. "That was quick." Sam said to him.

"Yeah, Cas had pretty much finished by the time I got there.." He said quietly, dropping into the seat opposite Sam's. "How's she doing?"

"Not good, she woke up earlier totally freaked out. I think she had a nightmare."

Dean shook his head and ran a hand over his face. "Poor kid." He muttered.

"Dean, she's twenty-three." Castiel stated simply.

Sam smiled slightly at the confused look on his face. "She'll always be a kid to him Cas."

"I'm gonna get some air." Dean muttered, standing and leaving the room without looking at either of them.

They exchanged a concerned look. "I'll be right back." Sam said as he followed Dean from the room. Castiel nodded and took a seat in Sam's empty chair. Sam walked quickly down the stairs and outside of the hospital, finding Dean leaning against the wall. "You alright?" He asked him quietly.

Dean looked up at him, tears in his eyes. "I'm sick of seeing her like that Sammy. I'm sick of seeing her with black eyes and broken bones. It's not fair."

"I know it's not. But the doctor said she's gonna be fine. That's the important thing right?"

"Physically."

"What?"

"She'll be fine. Physically. That only means her bruises are gonna fade. What about the nightmares? The way she's gonna be looking over her shoulder, freaked out about going out alone."

"Then we'll help her through it. Dean, she's tough, she'll be alright."

He shook his head and looked down at the floor. "Right." He muttered.

Kate blinked open her eyes suddenly to see Castiel staring at her, a concerned frown on his face. "Cas?" She said in a small voice, putting the thoughts of her nightmare aside and managing a weak smile.

"Are you alright?" He asked her gently.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She said quietly, sitting up to look at him properly. "Where's Sam and Dean?"

"Outside." She nodded, that meant that one of them was having a moment. "They're worried about you."

"I'll be fine, really." She said, trying to give him a more convincing smile this time as she squeezed his hand.

"You don't have to lie to me you know." He told her quietly.

"Alright fine, my head hurts. My ribs kill. Pretty much feels like I was ran over by a truck, twice. But ya know, other than that.." She let out a small laugh and shook her head.

He nodded and smiled back at her. "Well other than that, I'm glad you're okay." They sat in silence for a few minutes until Castiel looked up at her. "Hey, you know if I could fix you.. I would."

"Don't worry about it." She gave him a small smile and looked down. "It's good to see you Cas, it's been a while." She said, in an obvious attempt to change the subject. They both looked towards the door as it opened and Sam walked in alone.

"Where's Dean?" Kate asked him.

"He's gonna meet us back at the motel.." He said as he sat down heavily.

"Everything alright?"

Sam nodded. "You know how he gets.."

"He's blaming himself right?"

"Pretty much.." He sighed. "So why don't we see if we can get you out of here?" He said to her in a lighter voice.

Dean walked into the motel room and picked up a bottle of whiskey, not bothering with a glass he drank it straight from the bottle. He felt awful about leaving the hospital but he wasn't kidding Sam when he told him that he couldn't see her in there anymore. He hated hospitals. All they reminded him of was all the pain that they had been though in the past. He lay down on his bed and closed his eyes with a deep sigh, he wanted to go back but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He'd let the guy go, he'd called her crazy, he'd pushed her to leave that night, he'd let her go out alone when there was someone after her and he hated himself for it. No matter how many times Sam and Castiel told him that none of it was on him, there was no way he was going to believe them.

_Thanks again for reading guys, hope you're enjoying it. And as always, if you've got time a review's always appreciated :) Have a great week!_


	11. Chapter 11

Once Kate had been discharged from the hospital Sam took her back to the motel, slightly grateful that wherever Dean had gone, he'd left them the Impala there. When they got back to the room, Sam glanced around to see Dean hadn't been back yet. Kate walked inside and took a seat on one of the beds, wincing at the pain that shot through her ribs again. Sam took a seat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him. "You alright?" He asked her gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"He'll come back Kate, don't worry about him."

"Why'd he even leave in the first place?"

"Come on, you know he doesn't exactly do well with guilt."

She nodded and closed her eyes. "But you know when it comes to Dean what comes along with the guilt."

Sam sighed, knowing she was talking about his drinking. He was almost positive that Dean would be sitting in a bar somewhere getting drunk. "Everything's gonna be alright, you'll see."

"Love you Sammy." She whispered.

"You too sis." He kissed the top of her head and held her until they both fell asleep.

Castiel took a seat on the bar stool next to Dean's, warily glancing at the increasing number of empty shot glasses and beer bottles on the bar in front of him. "Dean?"

Dean turned and gave the angel a small smile. "Hey Cas."

"What are you doing?"

"I am.. getting drunk." He said simply, taking another drink of his beer.

"Dean, you should go back to the motel. Kate and Sam will be worried about you."

He pulled out his phone and ignored the missed calls and messages from Sam to look at the time, almost three in the morning. "Huh, time flies." He muttered sarcastically before nodding at the bar guy to get him another shot.

"Dean."

"You don't get it Cas. Whether she blames me or not, it's still my fault. I screwed up and she got hurt, hell, she almost got killed. How am I even supposed to look her in the face?"

"You can't avoid her forever."

"Yeah, I know." He mumbled, downing the shot before throwing some money down on the bar. "Thanks Cas." He said quietly as he picked up his jacket and stood up.

Castiel smiled at him and nodded. "Goodbye Dean." He said before vanishing.

When Dean got back to the motel room it was after half three, Kate was sitting at the small table with her headphones in, doing something on her phone while Sam slept. Finding his way in by the light given off by her phone, Dean flipped on the dim lamp in the corner and closed the door. Kate glanced up at him and pulled out her headphones, watching him cautiously. She could see that he was slightly drunk as he pulled off his leather jacket and picked up a bottle of whiskey before dropping into the chair opposite hers. He took a long drink from the bottle and sighed. "So.." She started, noticing how he had refused to look at her since he had walked through the door. "How come you left the hospital?"

He sighed heavily and took another drink. "I just.." He trailed off and shook his head.

"Hey, Dean look at me." He hesitantly raised his head to look her in the face. "Whatever's going on with you, you can tell me."

"I just- I don't like seeing you like this." He admitted quietly, the pain clear in his voice. "Kate, I'm sorry."

"No, you're drunk."

"I'm not drunk." He said, raising his voice slightly.

She studied his face and frowned slightly. "Dean, you know that this isn't your fault right?"

"Of course it is. Kate, I should have ended him five years ago. None of this would have happened."

"I didn't shoot him either, remember? And besides, you didn't know this would happen."

"Well, I should have known. What if we hadn't found you huh? Another day and-" He stopped himself and looked down. "You and Sam, I mean, you two are all I've got."

She sighed and took a hold of his hand, lowering her voice into a serious tone. "Dean, we're fine. Sam and I aren't going anywhere alright?"

He nodded and smiled at her. "Yeah, I know."

"I'm gonna try getting some sleep." She said as she stood up. "You should too."

"Yeah, just give me a minute." He said quietly as he headed to the bathroom and closed the door behind himself. When he came out, his sister was already sleeping. He climbed into bed and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

Sam woke the next morning to a loud scream. He shot up in bed and looked around quickly. His eyes fell to the bed next to his where his brother and sister were watching a movie on his laptop. He breathed a sigh of relief and climbed out of bed, smirking at the movie. "Friday the 13th? Again?"

"It's a classic Sammy." Dean said to him, not taking his eyes from the screen. Sam wondered how either of them could be so enthralled in a movie they'd easily seen a hundred times, both watching it with their mouths hanging open.

"Dude, this is like the remake of the remake of the remake." Sam smirked at them.

"This is the 2009 one." Kate said. "It's pretty awesome."

"And the chick's pretty hot." Dean added with a grin.

Sam rolled his eyes and laughed. "Hey, you said there might be something up in Minnesota right?" Kate asked him.

"Um, yeah maybe." Sam answered.

"Cool, so we'll head over there and check it out." Dean smiled at him, returning his attention to the movie.

Sam shook his head at his brother and sister in amusement before picking up some clean clothes and heading for a shower. An hour later the three of them were in the car on the way to their next hunt. Dean was driving and singing his heart out to Metallica while Sam sat beside him rolling his eyes every time he turned the music up, while Kate sat in the backseat laughing at the two of them. For once everything seemed to be going okay for them, not that any of them would admit that. Because it was when they said things like that, things seemed to take a turn for the worst.


	12. Chapter 12

The three of them arrived in a small town the next morning. After a few hours of investigation, Sam and Dean headed back to the motel room where their sister was after Dean had decided that she hadn't recovered enough to hunt. As they walked into the room, Dean heard a faint banging of music. Recognising it as Metallica he frowned in confusion before realising that it was coming from his sister's headphones. She was lying on one of the beds with her eyes closed and her headphones in, apparently not noticing they'd come back. "Well, that's safe." Dean muttered to Sam who laughed. He walked to the bottom of the bed and grabbed her ankles, pulling her forwards so that she was sitting on the end of the bed and they were almost nose to nose. "You know if we were demons, you'd be dead by now." He said with a cocky smirk.

"Hilarious Dean." She laughed and pushed him as she stood up. "So whatcha find out?"

"Angry spirit, dude's buried in the cemetary in town." Sam said.

"So we're digging tonight?"

"No, we're digging." He said, pointing between himself and Dean. "You're staying put."

She rolled her eyes at them and sat back down. "Guys I told you already, I'm fine."

"You're fine when I say you're fine." Dean smiled as he sat down next to her.

"Sure thing Dean." She muttered sarcastically.

Sam and Dean walked across the cold, dark graveyard as they looked for the right headstone. "Hey Dean." Sam called.

"Found it?" He asked Sam, heading towards him. Sam nodded and threw his bag to the ground before they began digging. They'd made it about half way down when they heard shouting, both looking up to see a group of guys walking towards them with flashlights. One of them stopped at the side of the half empty grave and stared at them for a minute.

"Out of the grave boys, you're both under arrest." He said harshly.

"Whoa, hold up a sec-" Dean started but quickly stopped when the other two officers pointed their guns towards himself and Sam. They looked between each other before climbing out of the grave and allowing the police officers to cuff them, marching them towards the waiting police cars.

They were thrown into one of the holding cells, sitting beside each other with a deep sigh. "This sucks." Dean muttered.

"Yeah, you can say that again." His brother agreed. "So uh.. Which one of us is going to call Kate?"

Dean glanced down at his watch and smirked, she wasn't going to be impressed at getting a phone call at almost five in the morning. "It's your turn Sam."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's yours."

Dean shook his head and looked up as the sheriff walked over to them. "You've got one phone call." He said flatly. Sam looked at Dean and grinned.

"It's definitely your turn." Dean muttered as he stood up and followed the sheriff towards the phone. This was a phone call he wasn't looking forward to making.

Kate woke to a loud ringing. She rolled over in bed and looked at the time. 4:57am. She groaned and picked up the phone. "Yeah?"

_"Kate, hey." _Dean's voice came from the other end of the phone. He tried to sound cheery, praying that she wouldn't kill him for this.

"Alright Dean, what've you done?"

There was a small pause. _"What do you mean?"_

"Well, it's five in the morning, you're not back yet and you're sounding guilty.. You're not tied to some chick's bed again are you?" She asked him flatly.

_"What? No. And I thought we agreed not to talk about that again."_

She smirked to herself. "Fine, so what's up?"

_"Well, now that you mention it.. We may have come across some.. complications."_

"Dean."

_"We're in jail." _He said, deciding he'd better cut to the chase_. "Kate..?"_

"Gimme half an hour, I'll sort it."

_"Thanks sis."_ He said, hanging up the phone.

Dean dropped down next to Sam and sighed. "So?" Sam asked.

"She said half an hour."

They were interrupted by the sheriff standing at the bars of their cell. "So, Sam and Dean Winchester. Heard you were dead." Sam and Dean looked between each other. "Ran your prints, came up that you were wanted by quite a few states."

"Look, sheriff-"

"Save it, FBI will be here soon." He muttered before turning and walking away.

Sam turned to Dean, his mouth hanging open. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"I dunno.." Dean answered honestly. "Just pray Kate gets her ass here before the Feds I guess."

They sat in a tense silence for what felt like hours until it was broken by the door to the cells being opened. "..and we'll deal with them from here." A woman was saying to the sheriff as she walked in with him and stopped outside the cells. The woman, who had short black hair, raised her eyebrows to them. "Agent Smith, FBI." She said, holding up her badge. "You're going away for a long time boys." She told them, winking at Dean as he was pulled from the cell, followed by Sam.

Once they'd been secured into the back of the car, she rolled down the window and thanked the sheriff before pulling out of the police station parking lot and driving away. "Where'd you get the car from?" Dean asked casually from the backseat.

"Borrowed it." Kate replied casually, pulling off the wig and tossing it aside. "How'd you manage to get yourselves arrested?"

"We got busted burning the bones." Sam told her.

"You finish the job?"

"No, we got caught before we had the chance."

"Well, that's just great." She muttered.

"We've got an even bigger problem than that."

"How does this get bigger?" She asked, looking between them through the mirror.

"They know who we are, they know we're not dead."

She slammed her foot down on the break and turned to look at them. "You're kidding me?" Neither answered her. "You're not kidding me.. So the FBI aren't gonna be far behind us? Awesome."

"Exactly. Which is why we need to get back to the motel and get the hell out of town." Dean said. She nodded and put her foot down, driving back to the motel. The three of them got out of the car and ran to their motel room to pack up their stuff.

Sam swung his bag over his shoulder and turned to Kate and Dean. "Ready to go?"

They both nodded at him before heading towards the door. Kate pulled it open but slammed it closed again and locked it. "What's wrong?" Dean asked her.

"Cops. Heading this way."

"Ah crap." Dean muttered. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"Guys, go." Kate said as she pushed them towards the bathroom.

Sam frowned as she closed the bathroom door and locked it, leaning her back against it. "What?"

"They want you two, they get you and you'll be locked up for good."

"Sam, she's right." Dean said quietly. They all looked up at the sound of the motel door being forced open.

"Go. Now." Dean squeezed the top of her arm before climbing out of the window. Sam gave her one last look before following him and pulling the window down after himself. Once it was closed, Kate moved away from the door and unlocked it. She stepped into the room to have several guns pointed at her before she dropped to her knees and allowed the FBI agent to cuff her wrists behind her back.

Sam and Dean watched from the other side of the road as Kate was pulled from the motel room and thrown into the back of a squad car. "We are so screwed." Dean muttered.


	13. Chapter 13

Soon after the streets had cleared of police cars and FBI agents, Dean and Sam made their way to a nearby diner, taking a seat near the back out of sight from anyone. "I can't believe we let her do that." Sam muttered into his coffee.

"Sammy, we didn't have a choice."

"We could've brought her with us. Not just leave her there to take the fall for us."

"Sam, she hung back so that we could get out before we were busted. If they'd have caught us we'd never have gotten out again."

"Yeah Dean, but now she's in prison. How the hell do we get her out?"

"Don't worry about it. We'll think of something." Dean said, giving him a reassuring smile. "Besides, they can't charge her right?"

"Dean, they think she's the sister fo a couple of serial killers. I'm sure they'll find something to hold her on." Sam snapped across the table.

He looked down at his cup before looking back to his brother. "Well then, we'll just have to come up with something before they do won't we?"

Kate sat in the questioning room of the police station. She sighed and put her feet up on the table, leaning her head back and staring at the ceiling. She thought about picking the lock on the handcuffs that held her to the table and getting out. She knew that she could probably do it if she tried but it would only make things worse for both herself and her brothers. She looked up at the door as it opened, two men wearing suits walked in. One of the men stood to the side of the room as the other stood at the other side of the table. "Well, well.. Kate Winchester I presume?"

She returned his smile with a glare. "Who's asking?"

"Special agent Thompson, FBI. This is my partner, agent Miller." He said, gesturing to the other guy.

"Huh. Impressive." She muttered.

"So tell us, do you know these guys?" He asked her, sliding a picture of Sam and Dean's mug shots over the table.

"Nope." She answered, barely looking at the pictures.

"Oh really? So this isn't the three of you together then?" He asked, handing her a picture of the three of them taken on a security camera somewhere. She took her feet off the table and sat back in her chair. "Wanna try again?"

"Alright fine, whatcha wanna know?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Everything. Do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you three?"

"I do actually." Kate smirked. "So no offence, agent, but you kinda suck at your job."

He ignored her comment and smiled. "Where are your brothers Kate?"

"No idea."

"Really? You realise their lives are over right? Read her the charges." He said to the other agent.

"Well there's mail fraud, credit card fraud, theft, grave desecration, armed robbery, kidnapping and then several counts of first degree murder-"

"I'm sorry." She cut him off. "Several counts?"

"The body count went up quite a bit after Colorado. You remember that? When they blew up that police station. I mean supposedly they died there but.. I dunno.. They seem to be pretty healthy to me." Thompson cut in. "They killed two of my agents there. Along with a bunch of other innocent people."

Her mouth hung open slightly as she looked between them. "Buddy, you've got the wrong guys. Sam and Dean aren't killers."

"Right. Kate, your brothers are gonna spend the rest of their lives in prison. You don't have to. So I'll ask you again, where are they?"

"I told you, I have no idea where they are."

He sighed and turned away from her in frustration. "You either start talking or I'll have your ass locked up so fast-"

"Yeah? What the hell for?" She asked him, raising her voice.

"There are so many things that don't add up about your brother's cases. Things that could easily be put on you."

"Oh do tell." She pressed sarcastically.

"How about the way they managed to bust out of that jail cell? Supposedly it was a female agent, now we ran her name and we got nothing."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "What's that got to do with me?"

"Your brothers are well known for impersonating officers Kate. Maybe you're in on it too. Then again, you could always be charged with accessory to murder. The murders your brothers committed. I understand that you were arrested with them in Colorado."

"Okay man, I watch CSI so I know that you don't have the evidence to put that on me. You've got no case against me and you know it."

"Oh keep up the sarcasm Kate, if it makes you feel better." He sighed deeply when she didn't answer him and dropped into the chair opposite her. "What happened to your face?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well no offence but it kinda looks like you've had your ass kicked by someone."

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed."

"Did they do that to you? Is that why you won't rat them out? Because you're scared. 'Cause Kate, we can get you protection from them."

"Are you kidding me? You think they.." She trailed off and shook her head at him.

"Maybe not Sam, but Dean." He stopped and eyed her suspiciously.

"Stop right there." She said harshly, the first real emotion she'd shown since he'd walked in the door. "Don't you ever accuse them of something like that."

He stared at her for a minute before smiling slightly. "How about we take a break huh?" He stood up and made his way to the door with his partner, both of them leaving the room. She let out a deep sigh and picked up one of the files the agent had left lying on the table. She glanced over a few pages before throwing it back down and sighing heavily. She really couldn't see a way out of this one. Either they were going to find Sam and Dean and lock them up for the rest of their lives or they were going to hold her there and charge her with anything they could until they got a hold of her brothers. Either way, the three of them were definitely in trouble.

_So I don't really know how the police/FBI systems work in America, so I apologise if that was completely unrealistic.. Anyway, thanks for reading guys_ :D


	14. Chapter 14

Kate lifted her head from the table and glanced towards the door to see the agent walking into the room again. She rolled her eyes and put her head back down, no longer caring what he had to say to her. She was too tired and too pissed off to bother arguing with him anymore. "Sorry, am I disturbing you?" He asked her sarcastically.

"You have no idea how much I wanna punch you in the face right now." She mumbled into the arm her face was rested against. She groaned and sat up, glaring at him. "How long are you planning to leave me sitting here?"

"How about this? You tell me where your brothers are and I'll let you go."

She sighed dramatically. "Tell me, while I'm sitting here handcuffed to a table, how exactly do you expect me to know where they are?"

He sat down across from her and lowered his voice. "I'm not stupid Kate, I know how you Winchesters work."

"Yeah?" She narrowed her eyes and smirked at him. "Well good luck proving it."

He ignored her and continued to smile. "How about you fill in a few blanks for me then?" He said as he opened his file and looked over it. "Or is that too much to ask?"

Kate grinned at him. "Ask away."

"When was the last time you saw your brothers?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Hmm, and when was the last time you spoke to them?"

She sighed heavily as she pretended to think back. "About three weeks ago."

"Yeah? Which one?"

"Sam."

"Right, and what did he say to you?"

"Is this really necessary?" She asked him, starting to get annoyed.

"Just answer the question."

"Fine. He said that he was with Dean and that he was just checking in to make sure I was okay."

He raised his eyebrows. "That's it?" He asked her skeptically.

"Well, we talked about the new Brad Pitt movie for a while too if you want details about that? Personally, I thought it sucked but.. Sam liked it." She replied casually.

The agent threw his pen down on the table in frustration and glared at her. "Lying isn't going to get you anywhere. We know damn well that you were staying in that motel room with your brothers. So tell me where they are." He demanded, raising his voice at her.

"Alright fine." She sighed and looked down. "You wanna know where they are? I'll tell you.. They're headed for Louisiana."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Believe me, don't believe me. I don't really care. But that's what you wanted to know and now I've told you. It's the truth." He looked at her carefully before standing up and leaving the room.

Dean glanced down at his watch and sighed. "It's been two days Sam, what the hell are they doing with her?"

"I don't know Dean." Sam told his brother for what felt like the millionth time that morning.

"We have no idea what's going on. We've got no idea where they're holding her. This just plain sucks."

"Uh-huh." Sam mumbled in response. Honestly, the more Dean came out with statements like that, the more he worried about her.

"They've got nothing to charge her with. They can't just lock her up. So why the hell isn't she back yet?" His voice grew quieter with his last question, Sam could hear the worry in Dean's voice.

"Look-" Sam stopped at the sound of a loud banging on the door.

"Oh shit." Dean muttered, getting to his feet. Sam walked towards the door and listened, hearing nothing until there was another loud bang and someone tried the handle. He turned to Dean who simply shrugged at him. Sam took a breath and pulled open the door to find Kate standing outside, a small smile on her face.

"Hey Sammy." She said as he pulled her into a tight hug. When he'd let her go, she wandered inside and allowed Dean to do the same. She pulled back from him and moved to one of the beds, lying down and closing her eyes. Dean and Sam looked between each other and frowned in confusion.

"So?" Dean pressed. "You gonna tell us what happened or.."

"Hmm, later." She mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes. Dean turned to Sam with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Kate!" He yelled loudly.

She groaned and propped herself up on her elbows. "Dean, I haven't slept in almost three days."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." He said sarcastically. "You sleep then. I mean it's not like we've been sitting here for two days waiting to see if we were going to be spending the rest of our lives in prison or anything."

"How'd you get out?" Sam asked, taking a seat on the side of the bed.

"They let me go, nothing to hold me on."

"What did they say to you?"

"Well, aside from all the stuff they already had on you, they've pretty much decided that since you're both alive you were the ones who killed everyone back in Colorado. So you can officially add that to your records."

"Awesome." Dean muttered, taking a drink of whiskey. "What've they got on you?"

"Not much, they think I helped you bust out of jail. They know I was arrested with you back at Colorado and then he said something about accessory to murder. But they can't prove any of it."

"So they're still looking for us?"

"Yeah, I told them you were heading to Louisiana. That should buy us some time."

"Time for what? What the hell do we do now?" Dean asked.

"I guess we just keep our heads down." Kate said glumly.

"Kate, the whole of America is looking at our faces on the news. We can't just keep our heads down and hope it all goes away. We need to fix this." Sam said.

"Yeah, that's smart Sam. And how do you suggest we do that?"

"We should go to Bobby's. Stay out of the way until we can sort it out." Dean said. They both nodded at him and stood up to get their bags sorted.

The three of them arrived at Bobby's later that night, he was on a hunt so they had the house to themselves. Since none of them had managed to get much sleep over the past week, the first thing they did once they got there was go to bed.

Dean rolled over in bed and opened his tired eyes, blinking the sleep from them. He groaned as he climbed out of bed and made his way downstairs to the kitchen where his sister was sitting at the table with her laptop. She glanced up at him as he entered but looked away as he sat down across the table from her. "What time is it?" He asked her with a yawn.

"Half six." She muttered.

"Huh." He hadn't realised that it was so early. "Have you even been to bed?"

"Sure I have." She answered, taking a drink of her coffee. "I couldn't sleep. It's not a big deal."

He stared at her for a minute and narrowed his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." She said blankly.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "You're up at half six in the morning Kate. You're never up at this time unless we're working. What is it? Did you have another nightmare?"

"What?"

"Sam told me about the one you had in the hospital, and you can't have slept more than a couple of hours since then." She sighed and looked up at him. "You could've woken me up you know."

"Yeah right, you've hardly had any sleep this week Dean." She said lightly.

"Maybe, but I seem to remember you not sleeping properly for about two months straight when I was having my nightmares after hell. I'm sure I can manage it."

She smiled at him. "Thanks Dean."

He nodded and stood up to make some more coffee. "So life on the run huh? Never thought we'd have to do this again."

"Well, that's what happens when you're a world-class badass." She smirked.

"Totally." He laughed, trying to ignore how cornered they could really be here.

_Thanks for reading guys :) You all rock! _


	15. Chapter 15

Sam sat on the chair in Bobby's living room, reading an old book he'd found lying around while Kate and Dean sat on the couch watching the same sucky tv show they'd already watched earlier that day. "This sucks." Dean complained loudly.

"Nineteen." Sam and Kate both muttered tiredly.

"Come on, you've skipped about ten there." He said defensively.

"Dean, you've said it nineteen times now. We get it, it sucks." Kate smirked at him.

"Yeah well, I stand by my point. This blows. Ha!" He shouted as she opened her mouth to answer him. "You can't count that one."

"To be fair Dean, you've said that about six times as well." Sam said, not taking his eyes off the book on his lap.

"Ugh whatever." He groaned as he lay down. "I'm going to sleep. Night losers." They both stared at him as he went to sleep on the couch. Kate smirked at Sam who rolled his eyes. She stood up and went to the kitchen to make some coffee, sitting down at the table and yawning.

"Everything alright?" Sam asked , following her into the room and taking a seat beside her.

"Yeah, fine."

He gently placed an arm around her shoulders and sighed. "Dean said you were up early this morning."

"He did?"

"Yeah, said you'd had a nightmare." She didn't answer him. "Are they about him?"

She stayed silent for a minute. It was true, she'd had a few nightmares since the night it had happened. Dreams of him coming back somehow and finishing what he'd started. Or dreams of when he beat her and tied her up. But they were just dreams, there was no point in bothering her brothers about them. Her bruises were fading and all she wanted to do was forget about the whole thing, not talk about it and hope it made her feel better. "I'm fine Sam." She said blankly.

He rolled his eyes and rested his chin on her head. "I know, try to get some sleep though okay?"

"Sure." Said quietly as he kissed the top of her head and left the room. She left the cold kitchen soon after Sam, walking into the room to find him sitting back in the chair reading a book while Dean was passed out on the couch. Sam looked up as the door opened and smiled at her as she walked into the room, taking a seat on the edge of the couch where Dean was sleeping. He moved to lie on his back and breathed out deeply. "Dean." She whispered. "Dean." She said slightly louder, smiling when he didn't respond.

"He wont wake up. He's out of it." Sam said from the chair, watching her curiously. Kate grinned as she pulled something from her pocket. She took hold of one of his hands in hers and slowly opened the bottle before beginning to paint Dean's fingernails bright pink. She'd gotten through three nails before Sam spoke up. "He's going to murder you."

"Well, it'll teach him to eat my skittles."

"He did what?" He asked her with a smirk.

"Earlier, yeah." She muttered, clearly not seeing the funny side of it.

"Wow." Once she'd finished with one hand she placed it carefully back down and picked up the other one. Sam had his fist pressed to his mouth to stop his laughter from blaring out and waking his brother before she had finished.

"Kate Winchester!" Was the scream that they heard thunder down from the bathroom the next morning. Dean had apparently dragged himself to bed, half asleep, in the middle of the night. But now he was up, he had pink fingernails and man did he sound pissed. Sam had to work hard to suppress a smirk from breaking out on his face when he heard his brother stomp down the stairs and bang through the kitchen door.

"Mornin' Dean." Kate said casually, taking a drink of her coffee. "You want a cup?" She asked with a smile.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" He yelled at her across the table, waving his pink nails in her face.

This time Sam couldn't help but laugh. No matter how threatening his brother was trying to sound right now, it was hard to take him seriously when he was walking around with his newly painted nails. "You shut your mouth." He yelled at Sam before turning back to his sister. "You better have something to get this damn stuff off me." He warned before stomping back out of the room to take a shower.

Once the door slammed closed, Sam looked at Kate who smiled. A smile that turned into a full on laugh. Sam joined in, tears forming in his eyes from laughter. Dean paused half way up the stairs and grinned at the sound of them laughing. After everything that had happened lately, with Kate's attack and then the whole police thing, it felt good to hear them both laughing like that again, even if it was because of his pink nails.

An hour later, Kate and Dean were sitting at the table, Dean's left hand in Kate's as she removed the nail polish from his hands. "You know, you could be doing this yourself." She said to him when he told her she'd missed a spot.

"Hey, you put it there. You can take it off."

"You're just lazy." She muttered, pouring more remover onto the wipe.

"What on earth possessed you to paint them pink? Of all colours?"

She frowned slightly and looked up at him. "What?"

"I'm just saying, if you were gonna paint them could you have not have picked a better colour? Like maybe black or that blue one you wear with the- what the hell am I even saying?" He said as if he'd suddenly realised what was coming out of his mouth. Kate laughed at him and started on his other hand. "You do realise that I have to get you back for this don't you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wow Dean, I'm honestly terrified." She said sarcastically.

"Yeah, you should be." She smirked at him and rolled her eyes, he couldn't help but grin back at her.

"You know I think you secretly enjoyed having your nails done."

"Oh, bite me." He muttered, suppressing a smirk. "You're in so much trouble for this Kate."

"Uh-huh." She mumbled, putting his hand down on the table. "All done." She stood up and threw the wipe in the trash before turning towards the door.

"Hey sis." He called after her.

She leaned her head around the door and looked at him. "Yeah?"

"It's uh.. It's nice to see you smiling again."

She laughed and nodded. "Yeah, you too."

_So i figured since there's been some dramatic stuff going on lately we were all in need of some happy Winchesters ;) And come on, who honestly wouldn't want to see Dean with pink nails? Hope you're still enjoying it and thanks again for reading guys! Have an awesome week :D_


	16. Chapter 16

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" He answered, not bothering to look up at his brother.

"Sam." Dean pressed again.

"What?"

"Sam!"

"Dean! What the hell?!"

"I'm bored." He smirked. Next to annoying his sister, irritating his brother had become Dean's new favorite pass time. Especially over the last three weeks since it was one of his very limited sources of entertainment.

"Go find something to do then. Where's Kate?"

"She said she was going to get some food. She better bring pie." He said, more to himself than Sam, who seemed to be doing anything but pay attention to him.

"Couldn't you have gone with her?" Sam complained.

"Nah, she said she didn't want to risk me getting recognised." Dean muttered, quoting her with his fingers.

"So in other words, you were driving her nuts so she left you?" Sam smirked.

"Yep, pretty much." Dean answered, looking pleased with himself. He didn't stop talking to Sam until Kate came back with his pie.

They moved into the other room and took a seat on the couch, watching some bad movie on the tv. "I was thinking.." Dean began, his mouth full of food. "This whole 'on the run' thing, it might not be so bad after all."

"Oh yeah?" Sam smirked. "How'd you figure?"

"Well, we just sit around eating and watching tv. No monsters. No stress. Pie." He said, holding up his plate with a grin.

"God, you're an idiot." He said, shaking his head in amusement.

Kate rolled her eyes at him as he pulled his face at his now empty plate. "Bring me a beer." Dean said as she stood up.

"Get your own beer." She said, stopping where his legs were rested on the table blocking her path. "Move your legs."

"I will, if you get me a beer."

"Dean." She lifted a leg to step over his but he shifted, causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards into his lap. He held an arm over her to keep her from getting up. "Dean, what the hell?"

"Get me a beer?" He asked her again, giving her an innocent smile. She rolled her eyes and punched him in the chest.

"Fine, let go of me first." He moved his arm and let her back to her feet. "Sammy? You want one?"

"Sure." He smiled, still laughing at the two of them.

When she came back with their beers, Sam and Dean were pulling on their jackets. Dean picked up hers and threw it at her. "Come on, we're going out." Dean smirked.

"Yeah, where we going?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Dean wants to mess with his car." Sam said, looking much less enthusiastic than his brother.

"Touch up." Dean corrected him.

"Uh-huh. Well that sounds great, really." She grinned. "I'm gonna pass."

"Oh come on, we've barely left the house in days." Dean moaned.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm the one who goes out to get food like four times a day. I'm good here."

"Fine. We'll be out back if you need us." He smiled, taking his beer and heading out the door, followed by Sam. She smirked to herself and turned back to the room, walking straight into Castiel's chest and having to grab the wall to keep herself from falling over. She looked up at him and laughed. "Jeez Cas, don't do that." She said, punching him lightly in the arm.

He smiled at her and stepped backwards. "Sorry."

"What are you doing here?"

"Is it true?" He asked her, his voice suddenly becoming more serious.

She raised an eyebrow. "Is what true?"

"I saw your brothers on the news."

"Why were you watching the news?" She said as she walked towards the kitchen. "But uh, no. No, it's not true."

He nodded. He hadn't actually believed that Sam or Dean had killed anyone, but Sam had once explained to him that most things on the news channels were true. "I was confused, I apologise."

Kate laughed and held out a beer to him. "You sticking around for a while?" He tilted his head to the side and took the beer from her. She smiled at him and picked up one for herself. "Awesome." He sat down on the couch beside her and took a drink of the beer. "So how're you doing? I mean how are things, ya know, upstairs?"

He hesitated with an answer. "They're okay.. How are things here?"

She looked down at the beer for a second and sighed. "They're okay I guess.."

He looked at her carefully. "You're still having nightmares?"

"How'd you know about that?" He raised an eyebrow at her, something she swore he'd picked up from Dean. "Angel, right." She smiled slightly to herself.

"You know he's dead. He's not going to come back."

"Yeah, I know.."

"Then why are you afraid?" He asked, frowning in confusion.

She took a drink of her beer and looked up at him. "Who says I'm afraid?" She smirked and nodded when he didn't answer her. "Again, you're an angel. You guys know everything right? I'm not afraid of him Cas."

"But you are afraid?" She turned away from him and took another drink. "Kate, what's wrong?"

She shook her head and ran a hand over her face. "I don't know.. I just.." She sighed and glanced up at him. "I just want things to be okay."

"Are they not?"

"Yeah, they are now but.. things never stay like that with us."

He placed a hand on her back gently and smiled. "Things will be fine Kate."

She breathed out a laugh. "My god, I'm pathetic."

"No you're not.. Things will be okay, trust me. I'm an angel, I know everything." He said lightly.

She laughed and nodded. "Thanks Cas."

He smiled at her and stood up. "I should be going."

Kate stood up with him and smiled. "You're a good friend Cas, I wish you were around more.."

"Me too."

"Hey if things get bad, upstairs, you'll call us right? If you get into trouble."

"Yeah, of course." He smiled at her again before he vanished.

"What are you smiling at?" A voice asked from behind her. She turned to see Dean leaning against the door frame.

"Nothing, what's up?"

"I came to get another beer, you coming out?"

"Sure." She smiled and followed him outside to where he was working on his car. Sam was sitting at the workbench beside the car on his laptop.

"Hey Samantha." Dean called as he held out a beer to his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes and took the beer, not looking up from the laptop. "There might be a case, not too far from here."

"A case? What if someone recognises us?"

"It's been three weeks Dean. I mean it's not like we're on the news every night anymore right?"

"I dunno Sammy.."

"Well we can't hide forever."

"Well, technically we could."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" He smiled.

"I guess if we're careful, it could work." He turned to Kate. "Whatcha think?"

"Sure, I'm up for it." She grinned.

"Awesome." He said, slamming shut the hood of the Impala. "We're on the road in an hour losers." He said over his shoulder as he began walking back to the house.

"Moron." Sam yelled back at him with a grin. He was glad that they were getting back on the road again, being stuck in the house all day everyday for weeks had been driving the three of them crazy. "Should be fun." Sam smirked, throwing an arm around Kate's shoulders.

"Yeah, I mean when is hunting ever not fun?" She grinned at him. He laughed at her and stood up, heading back to the house to get their stuff packed up.


	17. Chapter 17

"So, what are you thinking we're looking for?" Kate asked Sam as they pulled into a motel parking lot and climbed out of the car.

"Well there's been a couple of fairly bloody deaths here in the last few weeks, as well as there being some lightning storms."

"Demonic omens?"

"Yeah, looks like there's a demon in town somewhere."

"Awesome." Dean muttered. "I've missed the little guys."

"Dean we've had like three weeks off, you act like we've been out months." Sam laughed.

"Yeah, shut up. Alright, you two go get checked into the motel, I'll go pick up some food and meet you there." He smiled.

"Sure." Sam answered before heading towards the motel with Kate.

They checked in and headed to their room, Sam going into the bathroom and closing the door behind himself. Kate opened up her bag and began looking through it for her phone charger. She heard the motel door open and close behind her, thinking it was Dean she didn't bother to turn around. An arm went across her stomach and as a hand covered her mouth to keep her from screaming. The strong arms that held her slammed her to the floor, knocking her out.

When she opened her eyes, she was tied to one of the motel chairs beside Sam. The two of them looked between each other and shrugged. Dean walked into the motel room a few minutes later to find them tied to chairs with gags in their mouths, a guy leaning against the table beside them. "Hey Dean, we've been waiting for you." He smiled.

He looked between his brother and sister, relaxing slightly as he realised that they were relatively unharmed. "Uh-huh. And who are you supposed to be exactly?" He asked him casually. The man stood up and smiled again, his eyes flashing black. "Oh." Dean muttered. "So, before I kill you, you wanna tell me what you wanted?" He asked sarcastically, pulling the knife from his jeans.

"Oh you're not going to kill me." The demon smirked and pulled out a knife. "Try it and I'll slice their throats so fast they wont know what hit them."

Dean visibly tensed at the mention of his brother and sister being hurt. He held a tighter grip on the knife and stared the demon straight in the face. "What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Dean, relax. I'm not going to kill them both, just one. And you have the honor of picking which one that is, and which one I let go."

"You're going to let them both go. Now!" He shouted at the demon who simply smiled at him.

"Look, I'm giving you the choice. You tell me which one you want to keep, or I'll kill them both."

"You've got to be kidding me." He mumbled, looking between them. "No way in hell."

"Hey, if you don't pick they're both gonna die. You might as well save one of them."

"I said no."

"I'd say we ask them for their opinions but we both know they'd just tell you to save the other one right?" The demon smirked.

Dean avoided the subject all together. It would be a cold day in hell before he chose one of them over the other. He walked further into the room, thinking of any way he could get them out of this. "So, have we met before or are you just being a bitch for the fun of it?" Dean asked him with a smirk.

"Oh we've met. You three exorcised me."

"Ah, so you hold a grudge I take it?"

The demon laughed. "Act as cocky as you like Dean, you're still going to have to pick one."

"I already told you, it's not going to happen."

"Well then they'll both die, it's as simple as that." He smirked as Dean glared at him. "How about we work it out together huh? You pick her, you get a liability that you're alway gonna have to babysit. You're into that kind of thing right? But then, you could pick Sam. He's got the future, he could go back to college and have a life.. Hers is the same dead-end street as yours."

"Shut up." Dean snarled at the demon.

"But then Kate never left you like Sam did, did she? She never picked a demon over you like Sam did." Dean looked past the demon's shoulder to look at Kate, seeing the anger on her face.

"I mean it, I'm getting annoyed." Dean warned.

"It's up to you Dean. You're going to have to pick one of them, either that or you're just going to end up all alone. I mean sure, you'll end up on your own eventually. One of these days Sam's gonna leave your sorry ass. And Kate, well she might be pathetic enough to stick around but.." He turned to look at her and grinned. "Your deal date's coming due right? Not long left now have you?"

Dean's head snapped up to look at her, before turning to Sam whose confused face matched his own. Kate mumbled something against her gag that they couldn't understand. "What the hell are you talking about?" Dean spat at the demon.

The demon laughed and looked at her. "You didn't tell them?" She glared up at him and looked towards the floor. "Oh, awkward.. I guess if you want to know, you'll be picking her?"

Dean took a step towards them, stopping when the demon raised the knife to Kate's neck. "I'm not kidding around here, try anything funny and they'll both bleed out from the neck." He looked at Sam who nodded at Dean from behind the demon's back. Dean understood him and turned his attention back to the demon.

"So you want me to pick one of them huh? Which one dies?"

"Finally, we're getting somewhere."

"Oh yeah. Real productive."

"Last chance Dean, who's it gonna be?"

Dean smirked as Sam broke out of the ropes that held his hands behind his back and grabbed a hold of the demon from behind. "You." He growled, driving the knife through his chest. He pulled out the knife and watched as Sam dropped the body to the floor. Sam pulled off his gag and moved to untie Kate, sharing a worried look with Dean as he did.


	18. Chapter 18

Kate stood up from the chair and rubbed the back of her neck, trying to avoid looking at either of her brothers. She was cornered here and she knew it. "Well?" Dean demanded, turning to face her.

"Well what?"

"I'm thinking you've got some explaining to do."

"Demons lie Dean." She said blankly, turning her back to him and heading towards the bathroom. Dean grabbed her arm and pulled her around to look at him, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Kate. Tell me you haven't made a deal with one of them." He looked her straight in the eyes until she eventually looked down. "Kate.." He whispered, letting his hands slide from her shoulders down her arms before stepping back from her. She glanced up at Sam who had the same look of shock and pain as Dean.

"How long do you have?" Sam asked her.

"About four months." She said quietly. He ran a hand through his hair and turned to Dean.

"What did you deal for?" Dean asked her suddenly, his voice giving away no emotion.

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters."

"Dean.." She stared into his face, her eyes pleading with him to let it go.

"Tell me." He said, raising his voice.

"I made it for Sam." She whispered. "When he was stabbed."

"Nice try Kate, but I was there when Cas healed him. Now either you start telling me the truth or-"

"Cas didn't heal him Dean." She cut him off. "Cas can't-" She stopped and looked behind Dean, he followed her eyes to where Castiel had appeared behind him.

He looked between them and shook his head. "Alright, whatever's going on between you two, I want an explanation. Now." Dean said, his voice raised slightly in frustration. Kate moved to lean against the edge of table, keeping her gaze on the floor.

"Cas?" Sam pressed him.

"I can't heal anyone anymore. After I rebelled to help you stop Lilith, they punished me. Parts of my power just drained away." He said quietly, looking at the ground.

"And you didn't think to tell us?" Dean asked, sounding more annoyed than ever.

"I asked him not to." Kate said, all of them turned to face her. "When you called me from the hospital, I hadn't spoken to you in over a month, I couldn't just.." She sighed and shook her head.

"Kate, what did you do?"

"I got there and spoke to Sam's doctor, he told me there was nothing they could do.. So I called Cas and asked him to heal Sam, but he told me he couldn't. So I made the deal and asked him to cover for me so you wouldn't catch on."

"You let her sell her soul?" Dean rounded on Castiel.

"No Dean, I didn't. She didn't tell me until after she'd done it."

"Hold on a minute, that was like two months ago." Sam said slowly. "Kate, how long did they give you?"

She bit her lip and refused to look at him. "Half Dean's deal.. I got six months."

Sam ran a hand over his face, now looking angry. "And when were you gonna tell us all this? Huh? Or was your plan to just wait for the hellhounds and let us figure it out ourselves?"

"That's not going to happen." Dean said harshly. "She is not going to hell."

"You see that, right there, that's exactly why I didn't tell you." Kate said to him. "We've been through all this once with Dean's deal. There's no getting out of them so why kid ourselves?"

"So what huh? You want us to just sit back and do nothing?" Dean yelled.

"Funny Dean, I think that's what you asked us to do when you made your deal." She answered, matching his tone.

"You didn't do it though, did you?"

Kate looked away from his angry, yet desperate face towards the floor. He shook his head at her and looked over at Sam, his face unreadable. "We should get rid of that body." Sam mumbled, making his way to the door and leaving the room.

Dean turned back to Kate and sighed. He walked across the room and picked up the body left behind by the demon, shoving it over his shoulder. He headed towards the door and stopped, turning and pointing at her. "We're not done." With that he slammed the door closed behind himself and walked over the parking lot to his car.

Sam stood from where he was leaning against the trunk and opened it for Dean so that he could quickly dump the body inside. He watched Dean slam the trunk closed and get into the car, not once looking at Sam. He followed him and took a seat in the passenger side. "You okay?" Dean asked him.

Sam stared out of the window in front of him, not wanting to face Dean. "What are we gonna do Dean?"

Dean didn't answer him. He wanted to tell him that they'd get her out of it, that they'd find a way to stop it this time but he couldn't lie to him. "I dunno Sammy." He said quietly.

"We have to stop it. You already went to hell for me, not her too. How am I supposed to live with that?" He finally faced his brother. His face looked sad and broken, the same way it had when he'd found out that Dean was going to hell.

"We'll fix it Sam." He said as he started the car.

Kate dropped into one of the chairs at the small table and sighed heavily. "Are you alright?" Castiel asked her gently, taking a seat opposite her. She ran a hand through her hair and looked up at him with tear filled eyes, shaking her head. "You knew they were going to find out eventually."

"I know.. I just.." She shrugged and put her face in her hands.

"Kate, Dean didn't mean to shout at you. Or Sam. They're just worried about you."

"Just sucks right?" She looked up and smiled at him. "Hey, I'm sorry for dragging you into all this."

"Don't worry about it. You know you only have to call if you need something."

She nodded. "Thanks Cas."

Once they had gotten rid of the body, they drove back to the motel in silence. Dean pulled up the Impala in the motel parking lot and glanced over at his brother. "I think I'm gonna go for a walk." He said quietly.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." He smiled lightly at him and got out of the car. Dean leaned his head back and closed his eyes, having no clue what he was going to say to his sister when he went back to the room.

"Hello Dean." A voice said beside him, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Cas?" Castiel wasn't looking at him, he was staring out of the window. "So you knew about all of this?" Dean said, looking over at him. "Why the hell didn't you say something?"

"Dean, I swore to her that I wouldn't tell you. Either of you. I'm not saying that I was happy about it but a promise is still a promise."

Dean sighed. "I'm guessing you can't get her out of it then?" He shook his head. "God Cas, how could you let her do this?"

"I didn't let her do anything Dean." He said defensively. "I'm sorry, I am. But I'm here to help you if you need anything else."

When Dean looked back it was to an empty seat. He glanced out of the window at their motel room and slowly climbed out of the car. He walked over and stopped outside the door, taking a breath to calm himself before he entered.

He walked in to find Kate sitting on one of the beds, leaning up against the wall behind her. She wasn't surprised when Dean walked in alone, half of her hadn't expected Sam to come back with him. "You still mad?" She asked him as he threw his jacket over the back of a chair and sat on the bed beside her.

"I'm not mad.. If anyone understands why you did it, it's me right?" He didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. "You are not going down there Kate."

"Dean.."

"No. I'm not letting it happen. You can't.." He shook his head and put an arm around her. "You're not going through that. Not a chance."

She leaned into him and closed her eyes. "Dean you can't stop it." She whispered.

He held her tighter to him and pulled a hand through her hair. If anyone understood hell it was him, and there was no way that he was letting his baby sister go through what they put him through down there. "Watch me."

Sam walked into the motel room a couple of hours later to find his brother and sister sleeping on one of the beds. He took a seat on the bed facing them and ran a hand over his warm face. He looked down at Kate's face, she looked so much younger and calmer when she slept, something he'd missed about her lately. "Sammy?" He glanced up at her to see that Kate was awake. She carefully moved Dean's arm from where it was draped over her and sat up, moving to sit beside him. "You alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just awesome." He muttered sarcastically. The two of hem sat in silence for a few minutes. "You should have told us Kate." She could clearly hear the anger and pain in his voice.

"Sam, I couldn't tell you because I knew that you'd react like this."

"Can you blame me?" He shook his head and looked down. "Do you remember how you felt when you knew he was going to hell Kate?"

She wiped her eyes and looked up at Dean who was still sleeping. "Sam, please."

"You were crushed and broken. And now you've gone and done the same thing to him. And to me."

"Sam.." She said quietly, putting an arm over his back and letting her own tears fall down her cheeks. "I never meant for this.. You weren't supposed to know."

"But I do know. After everything Dean told you, Kate you know what they do to people down there.. You saw what it did to Dean. How could you just go and sign yourself up for that?"

"Because you're my brother." She whispered. "I need you here."

"And you think we don't need you? Kate, you know what Dean's death did to you. It's going to be the same for us." His voice was angry. "You know that if we don't stop this, you aren't going to be back in four months like he was."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I get that."

"How am I supposed to live with myself, knowing that you're down there because of me?"

"Sam." She pressed, this time louder. "Please don't hate me for this."

"Hate you? Kate, I don't hate you." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I don't wanna lose you."

She opened her mouth to answer him but closed it again, not knowing how to respond. Instead, she rested her head against his shoulder and placed her arms around him. He hugged her back tightly, trying to think of anything other than the fact that in a few weeks she might not be around..


	19. Chapter 19

_Sam flinched as Dean slapped the demon hard around the face with the back of his hand. "That all you got sugar?" The demon grinned up at him from the chair in the middle of the devil's trap, her voice was familiar but Sam couldn't see her face from where he stood. "You know, there was a time that I was the last person you'd ever think of hitting Dean." Sam moved around the devil's trap to the front of the chair. The demon raised it's head to look at him and smirked. It was Kate. She looked different, her face emotionless with blood dripping from her lip and a cut above her eyebrow. She stared at Sam with cold black eyes and smiled. "You did this to me Sam. You turned me into this."_

Sam shot up in bed covered in sweat. Kate glanced up at him from where she sat at the table. "Sammy?" The concern was clear in her voice. She stood up and walked quickly towards him, taking a seat on the bed in front of him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sam?" She tried again when he didn't answer. "You alright?" He slowly managed to look up at her face, her concerned, blood free, demonless face. He pulled her into a tight hug. Kate was surprised at first but hugged him back, running a hand through his hair. "Sammy, what's wrong?" She asked him gently.

"Nothing. Bad dream." He said as he pulled back. He smiled at her and shook his head. "It's fine."

"What was it?"

"Don't remember." He answered quickly, getting out of bed and heading towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower."

Kate gave him a weak smile as he slammed the door closed. She glanced over at Dean who was still in bed. "Dean, you awake?"

"Hmm." He moaned, not moving his face from the pillow. "Sammy alright?"

"No. And if you'd have bothered to open your eyes you'd have seen it for yourself."

"You had it under control. Besides, you two were in need of a chick flick moment." He smirked to himself.

Kate got up and moved towards Dean's bed, sitting beside him. "Dean, it's not funny. Something's going on with him."

He moved to lie on his back and looked up at her, giving her a slight nod. "Alright, I'll talk to him." She smiled lightly and looked away. "He'll be fine Kate."

Sam came out of the bathroom fully dressed. He picked up his jacket and shrugged it on. "Where are you going?" Kate asked him.

"Library." He muttered.

"Sam, don't."

"Don't what?"

"You're going to research deals aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" He answered defensively.

"Sam, we went through all this once with Dean's deal. We spent a whole year looking for a way to break it and we couldn't find one."

"So what? You're saying I shouldn't even bother trying?"

"I'm saying why kid ourselves. There's no breaking this deal Sam."

"Do you wanna go to hell?" Sam asked harshly, suddenly looking angry. She frowned and shook her head at him. "You know what, forget it." He muttered, walking out and slamming the door behind himself.

Dean stood up from the bed where he'd been lacing up his boots and walked up behind her. "He doesn't mean it."

"Yeah, I know." She said quietly.

He squeezed her shoulder and smiled. "I'll fix it." He grabbed his jacket and headed out of the door. It didn't take him long to find Sam, he was sitting in a small diner in town on his laptop. Dean walked in and ordered himself a coffee before sitting down across from Sam. "You alright Sammy?"

Sam jumped slightly when he spoke before he realised it was him. "I'm fine." He said in a low voice.

"Sam look, you just need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down Dean, my sister just sold her soul for me. Don't you get that?"

"I get it Sammy, trust me. And I know you don't mean to take it out on her but.." His voice softened. "Just go easy on her yeah?"

Sam nodded and sighed. "I don't want to fight with her. I'm just mad that she made the deal."

"I know you are. But ya know.. even though she's acting calm, I'll bet you she's freaking out about it pretty bad. I mean, she knows what she's headed for."

"That's my point Dean. You didn't know, she did and she still-"

"Sam even if I'd have known what they'd do to me down there, it wouldn't have changed anything. You know that right? I'd still have made that deal."

"Yeah, I know." He answered quietly. He looked back at his laptop screen while Dean sat and drank his coffee, neither of them speaking.

"So.." Dean offered after a while.

Sam looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Your nightmare."

"I don't wanna talk about it Dean."

"Sam come on, you can tell me. It can't be that bad right?" He smirked.

"Trust me, it can."

"You didn't get a lap dance from a clown again did you?" He asked with a laugh.

"Dean."

"Well then what?"

Sam slammed his laptop closed and sighed. "Fine, I dreamed that we were exorcising this demon, and then the demon was Kate."

"You dreamed she was possessed?" Dean asked, not catching onto why he was so freaked out.

"No. I dreamed that Kate was a demon."

"Oh. Got it." Sam nodded. "I take it that's why you wouldn't talk to Kate about it?"

"Well yeah, I already feel guilty as hell about it without her feeling sorry for me too."

"Sam, you know she wouldn't want you to feel guilty about it."

"I know.. I just feel like the worst brother in the world right now." He whispered.

Dean's whole face fell. "You know it'd break her heart if she heard you say something like that. You really think if you were a bad brother she'd have done what she did?" Sam looked up at him with tears in his eyes. "She did it because she didn't wanna do this without you. Same reason I did. When two people are willing to do that for someone, I think it says something about that person, don't you?"

"Or about the people that make the deals." Sam smiled.

"Well whatever, the point is, I can see it in her face Sam. Kate doesn't regret making that deal." He lowered his voice and turned serious. "And realistically, if we can't fix it, do you really want her last four months with you to be all crying and fighting?"

"Of course I don't."

"Good." Dean pushed his car keys over the table. "Then go fix it."


	20. Chapter 20

Sam picked up the keys to the Impala and left the diner. He drove back to the motel and climbed out of the car, walking towards the door and letting himself in. He found Kate sitting on her bed, chewing the end of a pen as she read the newspaper on her knee. "Hey sis." He said quietly as he closed the door behind himself.

"Hey." She muttered, not looking up from the paper. He walked over and took a seat on the end of the bed.

"Listen, about earlier.. I was being a jerk with you, I'm sorry."

"It's fine Sam." She smiled at him.

"It's not fine. You literally gave up everything for me and I just acted like a dick with you."

"Sammy, we're okay. Really. You don't have to apologise for anything."

He glanced up at her and nodded. "Okay."

"Good. Now that's over, I think I found us a hunt." She said brightly.

"Yeah? Where?"

She handed him the paper and pointed to an article. "Ohio. This guy was found dead in his home. No murder weapon, no prints, all doors and windows locked from the inside."

Sam just stared at her. "You wanna work a job?"

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Well yeah, I mean that is what we do."

"Yeah I know, I'm just saying.. There's other stuff that we could be looking into right now."

"Sam we've had this conversation." She said blankly.

He held up his hands. "Alright fine, I'll call Dean."

Kate smiled at him as he stood up and pulled out his phone, her face falling as he wandered across the room with his back to her. She hated that he knew about the deal, she knew he felt guilty about it which had been the whole reason she'd kept it from them in the first place. He hung up the phone and sat back down next to her to wait for Dean to get back.

The hunt was quick, it only took them a couple of days to figure out that it was an angry spirit and to deal with it. Sam and Dean told Kate that they were heading to a bar to celebrate wrapping up the hunt while she went back to the motel room to sleep off the headache she'd received when the spirit had thrown her into it's gravestone.

"You know how pissed she'd be if she knew we were doing this?" Sam muttered to Dean as he stood up from the dusty road.

"Well, if she's going to be difficult about it we'll have to do it behind her back."

"Hello boys." A deep voice said from behind them. They both turned around to see a man standing and smiling at them.

Dean smiled lightly. "Here's the deal douchebag-"

"You're not going to get anywhere talking to people like that Dean." The man cut him off. "I take it you're here about your sister?"

"Let her out of her deal. Now."

"Sorry, no can do. As you can imagine, there's a long line of people waiting to meet her downstairs. They all want a piece of the Winchester." He smirked. "I'm sure you understand that Dean."

"Let me make a deal." Sam cut in before Dean could answer. "My soul for hers."

"Sam." Dean warned him.

"Sorry Sam, a deal's a deal. There's no getting out of this one for her."

He glared at him and pulled out the knife. "Last chance."

The demon smirked at him. "No."

"Fine." He muttered, taking a step towards him and raising the knife. The demon moved out of the way and punched him in the face. Dean instinctively marched forwards and punched the demon hard before Sam pushed him to the side and lunged the knife into the demon's neck, letting the body drop to the floor.

"Well.. that went well." Dean mumbled. "You alright?"

Sam rubbed a hand over the side of his face and nodded. "I'm fine."

When they got back to the motel room, Kate was passed out in one of the beds. Sam smiled slightly, he didn't like the idea of having to explain his soon to be black eye to her just yet. The next morning when he woke up, Dean was still sleeping. He sat up and looked around the room, feeling a pain in one side of his face. He placed a hand on his cheek and groaned when he felt that it had swollen. "What happened to your face?" Kate asked him casually as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Sam, if you don't want to tell me fine, but don't treat me like an idiot." She picked up her jacket and pulled it on. "Did you go after the crossroads demon or something?" He sighed and nodded. Kate shook her head at him. "Damnit Sam, I asked you to leave it."

"Of course I'm not going to leave it."

"Sam, you're gonna end up getting yourself killed."

"Yeah, and if I don't, you are!"

She looked away from him and sighed. "I'll be back soon." She muttered, heading for the door.

"I'm guessing she's not too impressed with us right now?" Dean asked sarcastically from where he lay in bed.

"You guessed right. What do we do now Dean? The crossroads demon was the only idea we had. We've got less than four months to figure something out."

"We'll think of something Sammy, don't worry about it."

Kate came back a few minutes later with coffee for them, looking calmer than she had done when she'd left. "So what now?" Sam asked as she handed him his coffee.

She shrugged. "I guess we look for another job?"

"Right." He muttered.

"Well then." Dean said brightly, getting out of bed. "Better get ready, we're on the road at half nine whether you like it or not." He told them over his shoulder as he made his way towards the bathroom.

"Bet you we're still here at ten." Kate muttered to Sam with a smirk.

"You seriously think he's gonna take so long to get ready?"

"Come on, it's Dean, he'll probably still be primping in the mirror at ten." She smirked.

Sam sighed. "How much?"

"Ten bucks."

"You're on."

Sure enough at ten past ten, Dean was still standing in the bathroom mirror making sure his hair was spiked in all the right directions. Sam was starting to get impatient. "Dude, we have a twenty-three year old sister." He said as he stood in the bathroom doorway.

Dean looked confused. "And..?"

"And she's a girl."

"And..?"

"And she can get ready in less than half the time you take. Dude, hurry up!" Dean grinned and followed him into the other room, picking up his jacket and bag and walking towards the motel door with Sam and Kate to find another job.


	21. Chapter 21

_Hey :) I don't know how many of you read the first part but for anyone who didn't, the first chapter of it was the beginning of season four when Dean came out of hell and basically all you need to know is that when he came back Kate had gotten a tattoo of his name on her wrist ;-) Anyway, enjoy!_

The next four months passed quickly, way quicker than any of the Winchesters would have liked. The months turned to weeks and the weeks to days. Sam and Dean had talked to every demon, read every book, called anyone who might have had the slight chance of knowing something but had gotten nowhere. "This is hopeless." Sam said, slamming the book he was reading closed in frustration. "We've got like twenty-six hours left to break this deal, we're getting nowhere!"

"Sammy, calm down." Dean answered him softly.

"I can't calm down."

Dean closed his own book and rolled off the bed. "I'm gonna go pick up some food alright? Give yourself a break Sam." He gave him a light smile before picking up his leather jacket and heading to the door.

Kate came out of the bathroom and took a seat at the table, opposite Sam. "You look exhausted." She stated.

"Thanks." He muttered sarcastically, looking up at her seriously. "Hey listen, you know if we don't manage to work this out.. I want you to know-"

"Sam, don't." She cut him off, looking away from him.

"Please, just hear me out." Kate nodded at him. She knew there was no getting out of the deal. All three of them knew that, but Sam and Dean wouldn't accept it. Sam laughed slightly. "You know, I've thought about this speech all day and now I don't have a clue what to say."

"Sam-"

"Look, all I want to say to you is.. Thank you, I guess. I mean you've saved my life over and over. You know, you keep me and Dean going. You're so strong, and brave and I.." He trailed off and took a breath to calm himself.

Kate smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "Yeah, I love you too Sam." She laughed.

"Are you scared?" She looked up at him, a slight frown forming on her face as she thought about it.

"Little bit." She shrugged. "But that doesn't change anything Sam, I still don't regret doing it."

"You should do." He laughed slightly, feeling a lump in his throat. "Kate, I can't do this without you." He whispered.

"Sure you can. I mean, you've got Dean."

"He's gonna hate me. It's gonna be my fault and I-"

"Hey, trust me. Dean would never hate you. Ever. You know that."

He nodded slowly but didn't look at her. Kate stood and walked around the table, sitting lightly on his knee as she placed an arm around him. "You can't blame yourself for this Sam, it's not your fault." She said seriously.

"Right." He mumbled, both of them getting to their feet as Dean came back into the room. "I'm gonna head to the library for a while." He said, offering them a weak smile.

Dean frowned a little but nodded. "Okay." He said lightly, handing him the keys to the Impala and watching him walk out of the door. He walked further into the room and dropped the bag of food on the table before pulling off his jacket. "Damnit. I left my phone in the car." He said, running out of the door to get to the car before Sam drove off.

"Dean? What's up?" Sam asked him as he pulled open the door and reached over the seat for his phone.

"Left my phone." He said with a smirk. "You okay?" He asked, noticing the look on Sam's face.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Uh-huh." Dean climbed into the car and pulled the door closed. "What is it?"

"You should talk to Kate."

"What?"

"You know the thing that I regretted the most when you'd gone to hell Dean?"

Dean shook his head. "What?"

"The things I didn't say to you."

"What're you saying?"

"I'm saying, you should tell her that you're proud of her. Or that you love her.. I don't know. Say something." Dean nodded at him before getting out of the car.

"Call me if you need anything." He said as he closed the door. Dean watched him pull out of the parking lot before heading back towards their motel room. He walked in to see Kate staring straight ahead, a look of complete terror on her face. He stepped in front of her and bent down slightly so that he was level with her face. "You alright?" Her eyes slowly moved to focus on his face as she blinked hard and nodded. "Hallucination?" He asked gently. She nodded again. "You'll be fine." She took a seat on the small couch and glanced at him as he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

She frowned slightly. "Dean? What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

"What are you doing?" She asked him again, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing." He said simply.

"You look uncomfortable."

"What? No I don't." He walked around the couch and took a seat next to her.

"You've got your awkward conversation face on." She smirked. "You gonna go all soppy on me Dean?"

He sighed and looked at her. "Yes. So shut it and listen." He grinned.

She straightened her face and sat with her legs crossed next to him. "You have my full attention."

He rolled his eyes at her and laughed. "You're so weird."

The smile faded from her face as she looked down. "How bad will it be Dean?" She asked quietly.

He looked up at her, for the first time since he'd found out about her deal, she looked scared. "Hey, look at me. I know it's not looking good right now but, we'll fix it."

"Dean, you know you can't." She whispered. "You tried, I know you tried. But there's no stopping it."

"Then I'll find a way to bring you back. You can hold on down there, I know you can."

"How'd you know that?"

"Because you're strong. You're stronger than me."

"Dean." She shook her head.

"You are. You get it from mom. And from dad." He said quietly. "They'd be so proud of you. Like I am. I don't tell you that enough.. In fact there's a lot of stuff that I don't tell you enough. I mean look at you now, even with all this going on, you're still smiling. You just don't give up.. You keep me going." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes as he smiled at her. "Look, all I'm trying to say is that as far as kid sisters go, you don't suck."

She laughed at him. "Thanks. You're kind of un-suckish yourself Dean."

"Damn straight."

Neither of them said anything for a couple of minutes. "Hey Dean, don't do anything stupid when.. you know."

"You mean like you did when I went to hell?" He raised an eyebrow before he looked at her carefully. "How did you deal with it?"

"I got wasted and got a tattoo." She smirked.

Dean grinned and took hold of her arm, turning it over and pushing up her sleeve to look at her wrist where his name was written. "So you're saying I should have your name tattooed on me?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm saying."

"Don't you regret it?"

She frowned in confusion. "Why would you think that?"

"I mean, you said you got it to remember me by right? But now I'm back so.."

She shrugged and looked down at it. "I don't regret it. I was actually thinking about getting another one."

"Yeah? Of my face?"

"Don't you think I have to see that thing enough already?" She smirked. "No, of Sam's name. I mean I've got yours so.."

Dean nodded. "You know if you want, I'll take you to get one done now."

Kate looked up at him and grinned. "Seriously?"

"Sure."

When Sam arrived back at the motel room it was empty. He looked around and saw a note on the table. _Don't freak out, we'll be back soon. _Sam rolled his eyes and sat down, pulling his laptop from his bag. Not long after, Dean and Kate came back to the room. "Hey Sammy!" Dean said in a cheery voice. "I'm gonna have a shower now." He said, glancing at Kate and walking to the bathroom with a grin on his face.

Sam looked from the door to his sister. "What was that about?" He asked curiously.

"Don't mind him, he's just an idiot." She muttered as she pulled off her jacket.

"Whoa, what happened to your wrist?" He asked, pointing at the small plaster on it.

"Yeah, about that.." She held out her arm to him. He raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged. "Look at it." He took her arm and gently peeled off the plaster.

"Is that what I think it is?" Underneath where she had Dean's name tattooed was now Sam's. "Kate, you didn't have to do this."

She looked up at him and smiled. "I wanted to. I mean, I get it's kinda pointless seen as tomorrow I probably won't be here.." Sam frowned slightly. "But, I dunno, I just wanted to get it done." He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. Both of them fighting back tears.


	22. Chapter 22

Sam opened his eyes and sat up, realizing he had fallen asleep at the motel table. He rubbed the side of his face which had been rested on one of the many books scattered around the room and sighed. He stood up and walked over to where his sister was sleeping. Sitting down on the side of her bed he placed a hand on her cheek, feeling a pain in his chest as he realised that this would be the last morning she would wake up. "Stop thinking things like that Sammy."

Sam looked over at the other bed to see Dean looking at him. "Things like what?"

"You're thinking depressing thoughts. It's just gonna make today harder on you." He said softly.

"Not much is gonna make today harder." He answered quietly.

Dean nodded and climbed out of bed, patting Sam on the shoulder as he passed on his way to the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later and sat down opposite Sam as he pulled on his boots. "I'm gonna go pick up some coffee, I won't be long." He said, not sure on whether Sam was was listening to him.

Sam nodded at him slowly. "Sure."

Kate stirred awake at the sound of Dean pulling the motel door closed on his way out. She blinked open her eyes to look up at Sam. "Hey Sammy." She muttered tiredly, sitting up to face him.

"Hey." He smiled. "You alright?"

"Yeah, sure I am." She said as she climbed out of bed, patting his shoulder as she passed. "I'm gonna take a shower." She smiled as she walked towards the bathroom.

After her shower, Kate dressed and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her hands gripped the sides of the sink as she let out a long breath and calmed herself. She smiled, pushing the sense of fear to the back of her mind, before walking out of the bathroom. "Morning." Dean said lightly as she took a seat at the table with them and picked up her coffee.

"Morning." She smiled, taking a drink. The three of them spent the day in the motel room, not really doing anything. They laughed, talked about things that didn't matter and all tried to forget about what they knew was coming.

"Fifteen minutes." Sam said quietly, glancing down at his watch.

"There's something I've got to do." Kate said as she stood up. Dean nodded at her, knowing exactly where she was going.

"Hey." Sam called after her. She turned around as Sam tossed a jacket at her. She smiled at him before pulling it on and walking out of the room.

She walked out into the dark parking lot and leaned against the edge of Dean's car. "Hey Cas.. Can you come down please? It's kinda important.."

"Kate." A voice said from behind her.

She looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Hey."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you before.. you know.."

He suddenly realised what she was talking about. "Of course." He leaned against the Impala beside her. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help you out of this."

"It's alright Cas." She smiled at him. "Anyway, I wanted to say thanks."

"For what?"

"Everything. Dude, you rebelled against heaven to help us out. Not to mention everything that you've done for me." He smiled lightly at her. "Look, I've spent pretty much all of my life on the road, I never really got close to anyone like.." She stopped and looked at him. "You're like the best friend I ever had.. Just thought you should know that." She said, nudging his shoulder with hers.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Keep an eye on them, make sure they don't kill each other." She smirked to herself. "It's fine Cas, really. I'm okay."

"I know you're lying."

She nodded and grinned, standing up to look at him. "I'm gonna miss you." She whispered as she pulled him into a hug.

"Me too." He said quietly, hugging her back tightly.

"I better go." She said as she pulled away. He looked at her sadly and nodded. "Take care of yourself Cas." She gave him one last smile before turning and walking back towards the motel.

"So, how'd you wanna spend your last ten minutes?" Dean asked her as she walked into the room. She walked towards the couch and climbed over the back, dropping down between them.

"Actually, I think I'm good here." She said lightly. Dean nodded at her sadly and glanced over at Sam who took a hold of her hand and squeezed it. He held it for a few minutes before standing up nervously, followed by Dean and Kate.

"How long?" He asked.

Dean looked down at his watch. "Five minutes."

Sam shook his head and pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Kate, I'm so sorry." He whispered, holding her tighter.

Her hands clutched the back of his shirt as she hugged him back. "Sammy it's fine." She pulled back and offered him a small smile. Sam frowned a little, wondering how she could still be smiling at him when she was about to die. Because of him. "Take care of yourself okay?"

He nodded and let the tears fall down his face. "Yeah. Love you Kate." He whispered to her as he kissed her forehead.

She blinked the tears from her eyes and let go of the front of his shirt. "Love you too Sammy." She smiled, looking over at Dean who was watching them with tears shining in his own eyes.

"C'mere you." Dean said, holding out his arm to her. She took a step towards him and let him pull her into a strong hug. "Love you baby sis." He whispered into her ear, quiet enough so only she heard it. He kissed the top of her head before pulling away and clearing his throat, looking her straight in the eyes. "I'll bring you back, I swear." He told her, his voice full of determination.

She smiled shakily. "Yeah, I know you will." She whispered. She placed her hand on his cheek and grinned at him. "Love you Dean." He nodded and pulled her into another hug. She let the tears fall down her cheeks and stepped backwards, looking between the two of them. "Thank you.. For everything." She turned her head, hearing a faint growl outside.

"Kate?" Sam whispered.

"Hellhounds. Outside." Dean and Sam looked between each other, faces of fear and desperation mirroring the other. "You guys should go."

"Are you kidding? Kate, we're not-" Sam stopped as the door crashed open. The three of them turned quickly, Sam glancing at his sister and seeing the terror in her face from the sight that only she could see.

Another bang and she was on the floor. He stood in shock, not moving, not even breathing as her screams pierced through him, each one more painful to him than the last. Dean ran towards her, helplessly slashing at thin air until an invisible force collided with him and sent him flying backwards into the wall, knocking him out. Then the screaming stopped.

Sam watched on in horror. Everything went quiet. His gun dropped from his loose grip to the floor with a crash. He wasn't sure how long he stood there before he slowly moved towards his sister, lying still on the floor covered in blood, and dropped to his knees beside her..


	23. Chapter 23

"What the-" Dean began as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand and stumbled to his feet. His eyes fell to where his brother sat in the middle of the room, his back to Dean. He could see that Sam's shoulders were shaking slightly as he looked down at Kate, lying in front of him. "Oh god no.." He whispered, walking over to them and dropping to his knees at the other side of Kate, looking over her. Her face was pale and splattered with blood, her usual bright green eyes were now dull. He looked up at Sam's broken face and felt a tight pain in his chest. Gently he reached out a hand and ran it through her hair, stroking the side of her face with his thumb.

The two of them sat there for what felt like hours, Sam holding his sister's hand with his other rested on her cheek, and Dean sitting with her other hand clutched between both of his. "Sammy.." Dean whispered after a while. Sam looked up at him but didn't answer. "You don't have to be there when.." He trailed off, unable to bring himself to finish.

Sam shook his head and let go of her hand before getting to his feet. Dean leaned over and took her into his arms, clenching his jaw as he felt her blood seeping through his own shirt. He carried her outside and placed her gently in the backseat of the Impala.

Neither of them spoke as they buried her body. Dean placed a steady hand on Sam's shoulder as they stood over the grave for a few minutes before making their way back to the car. Pulling into the motel parking lot, he looked over at his brother who was staring blankly out of the window. "Sammy, come on." Sam glanced up at him and climbed out of the car, crossing the parking lot to the room. Dean followed Sam inside, closing the door gently behind himself and resting his back against it. "You wanna take a shower first?" He asked him gently, barely getting a nod before Sam moved silently towards the bathroom and locked the door.

Dean ran a hand over his face and dropped into one of the chairs at the table, picking up a bottle of whiskey and a glass on his way. He took a long drink from the bottle and rested his head in his hands.

Castiel appeared in the motel room behind where Dean sat. He glanced to the bathroom door as he heard the shower and looked back to Dean, not sure on whether the hunter was unsure that there was someone behind him or whether he was choosing to ignore him. He walked around the table where Dean was sitting, a half empty bottle of whiskey in front of him. He was still covered in Kate's blood and the dirt from digging a grave. "Dean?" Castiel said quietly, taking a seat across from him. Dean didn't move. "Dean." He pressed slightly louder, causing him to jump and look up quickly.

He took another long drink from the bottle before pouring some into the glass and sliding it over the table to Castiel. "She's gone Cas." He whispered, refusing to look at him.

Castiel took the drink and looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry Dean."

Dean eventually looked up at him, tears filling his eyes. "I don't know what to do." He admitted quietly. "Sam won't even talk to me. He hasn't said anything since it happened."

The whole time that Castiel had known Dean, everything that they had been through, he had never seen him look or sound so broken. He glanced over at the bathroom door and then back to Dean. "He's upset. He'll talk when he's ready."

Dean nodded slowly and took another drink. "I need your help Cas."

"Anything."

"I need you to help me bring her back."

"Dean.." Castiel started.

"You don't get it, I can't do this without-" He stopped and looked down for a minute. "I'm not leaving her down there Cas, please." He whispered, his eyes pleading with him.

Castiel nodded. "We'll find something." He assured him. "Call me if you need anything." Dean looked up at him and gave a small smile before he disappeared. He took another drink, blinking the tears from his eyes and letting them fall silently down his face, wiping them away when he heard Sam leave the bathroom.

He didn't say anything to Dean as he lay down on his bed and sighed, closing his eyes. Dean glanced at him sadly before making his way to the bathroom to take a shower himself, deciding he'd give him some time to be alone before he tried to talk to him again.

Sam opened his eyes as the door closed, trying to get the images of his sister's body out of his mind. He kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling as he thought back to the last time he'd felt like this. Back when he'd watched the same thing happen to Dean. He couldn't even bare to look Dean in the face, terrified he'd see the blame in his brother's eyes. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes again, attempting to think of something else.

Dean came out of the bathroom soon after and picked up his bag, dropping it onto the free bed. As he looked through it for a clean shirt, his hand found something else. He pulled out an old picture of Sam and Kate, sitting down on the bed and running a hand over his face as he looked at it. His mind wandered back to his own time in hell. Feeling his stomach churn at the thought of his sister being down there he stood up, feeling sick. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. There was a noise behind him as Sam sat up slowly. Dean shoved the photo back into his bag and pulled a shirt over his head. "Sammy?" He pressed gently, unsure on whether he would get an answer.

Sam sighed and stood up to face him, the pain and guilt washed over his face. "Dean, I'm sorry." He said quietly.

Dean frowned in confusion. "For what?"

"This. All of it."

"Sam.."

"It's my fault Dean." He said flatly.

"Don't say that."

"It is. She made that deal because of me and now she's probably being ripped to shreds in hell."

Dean ignored that comment and looked Sam straight in the face. "Blaming yourself won't bring her back Sammy.. I don't blame you. Neither would Kate, and neither should you."

"We can bring her back right?" Sam asked slowly, he sounded just like a kid again.

"Sam, I promised her I'd bring her back." Sam nodded and looked down as the tears filled his eyes. "Hey, look at me. Now if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to bring her back." Dean told him as he placed a hand gently on Sam's shoulder and gave him a small, reassuring smile. "We'll fix this bro, I promise."


	24. Chapter 24

Dean looked over from where he sat at the table to Sam as he sat up in his bed. He hadn't been to bed himself and he had a pretty good idea that, although he had forced his brother to go to bed, he hadn't managed to get any sleep either. Sam crossed the room to the bathroom without saying anything to Dean, coming out a couple of minutes later and taking a seat across from him. "Sammy? You manage to get any sleep last night?" Dean asked him.

Sam shook his head slowly. "I can still hear her screaming. I can still see it happening. And it's still my fault."

Dean sighed, every time Sam said that it was his fault, Dean felt as though someone was punching him in the gut. "Alright, Sam listen-"

"Wait." Sam cut him off.

"What?"

"Shh."

"Sam."

"Dean, shut up a sec." Dean frowned but did as Sam said. "You hear that?"

Dean listened and heard the faint buzzing sound. He glanced around confusedly as the sound stopped for a few seconds before it started again. "What the-" Dean muttered to himself as he realised it was coming from his bag. He searched around it until he pulled out his sister's phone, dropping it to the table and looking up at Sam.

"I'm not answering it." Sam said flatly.

Dean frowned and picked up the phone. "Yeah?" He answered in a rough voice.

_"Dean?" _Bobby's voice said from the other end of the phone. _"You alright kid? I've been trying to call you three all week." _Dean opened his mouth and closed it again, realising that it had been four days and they hadn't told anyone. Not that they had that many people to tell. "_Dean? You there?"_

"Yeah." He muttered.

"_Where are Sam and Kate?" _

He paused for a few seconds before he answered. "Sam's here."

_"And Kate?"_

Dean dropped into the chair and looked up at Sam. "She's gone."

_"Gone? You haven't been fighting again have you?"_

"No Bobby. I mean, she's gone."

Bobby didn't miss Dean's voice crack as he said that. There was a long silence before he answered. _"What happened?"_

"She made a deal, and now.."

_"A deal?"_

"Six months ago." Dean heard Bobby pour himself a drink. "Listen, I'll call you later." Dean said, knowing that right then neither of them wanted to talk about it. He hung up the phone and threw it down in front of him before picking up one of the books scattered over the table. He opened it and ran a hand over his tired face.

Sam's face softened as he looked at his brother. "Dean, you haven't slept at all since it happened." He said softly.

"What's your point?" Dean asked, not looking up from the book.

"It's been four days."

"Sam. I'm not leaving her down there." He snapped.

"Yeah, and neither am I!" Sam answered, matching Dean's tone. "But this is exactly what she was like when you.. And she ended up on drugs and did god knows what else until you came back." Seeing the pained look on Dean's face, he stopped and lowered his voice. "I'm just saying, give yourself a couple of hours sleep, before you collapse."

"I don't need this Sam." He muttered as he stood up and made his way to the door.

"Whoa, where are you going."

"Out." He stopped at the door and lowered his voice. "I'll be back later." He mumbled, pulling the door closed behind himself.

Sam shot up in bed, hearing a loud crash. He turned on the light and climbed out of bed, glancing at the clock beside him, 3:49AM. He watched as Dean practically fell through the motel door. "Hey Sammy." He said lightly, his words slurred.

"Dean? You alright?" He asked, walking towards him and placing a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Oh yeah, I'm great." He mumbled sarcastically, picking up a bottle of whiskey and taking a drink.

"Right." Sam muttered back. "Dean, what's going on?" He asked, sounding more annoyed than he'd intended.

"I'm fine." He said sternly, turning away from Sam.

"No Dean, you are not fine." He shouted. "You're anything but fine!"

Dean slammed the bottle of whiskey down on the table and turned to him, his face hard. "Sammy please, just leave it." He said through gritted teeth.

"I can't, you know that. What's up with you?"

"Oh, you mean apart from my sister being in hell?" He asked sarcastically.

"No, it's more than that."

Dean sighed, looking down at the floor. "We have to get her out." He whispered.

"And we will."

"No Sam, you don't get it.. I can't have her down there long enough to.."

"To what?"

Dean looked to him, tears in his eyes. "To end up doing what I did." He finished quietly.

Sam's face softened. "Dean, she won't. We're gonna get her out."

"Yeah, we've made real progress so far."

"It just takes time. We'll find something." He told him.

"Don't look at me like that Sam."

"Like what?"

"Like I need your freaking pity or something." He sounded angry.

"Dean you.. you haven't given up right? On Kate?"

He looked at him sadly as he moved to sit on his bed. "No, of course I haven't. I just.. I needed one night off thinking about her being down there."

Sam nodded slowly. "You should get some sleep." He said as he sat down on his own bed.

"Sure." Dean mumbled.

The next morning, Dean rolled out of his bed with a groan. He stood up and dragged his feet to the bathroom, squinting at his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he picked up his toothbrush. He turned to face the doorway as he heard his brother making his way towards it. "You feeling okay?" Sam asked him as he leaned against the door frame.

"No." He grumbled, turning back to the mirror and beginning to brush his teeth.

"Uh, Dean.. You should probably take a look at your back." Dean looked at him in the mirror in confusion before turning around to look at his back, seeing what Sam was getting at. A plaster on the back of his shoulder.

He turned back around to face Sam. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sam nodded at him slowly and then grinned. "Dude, you're inked.. Again."

"Crap." He muttered.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" Sam asked him curiously.

He grunted and spat out the toothpaste. "I remember when I decided to get drunk." He mumbled sarcastically. "But not much after that."

Sam nodded, feeling a little grateful that he didn't remember their conversation. "Well, you want me to..?"

"No. Not really." He said, taking another look at the plaster.

"Hey come on, it might be something okay."

"Or it might be something horrible.. It better not be some random chick's name." Sam smirked slightly and moved towards him, peeling the plaster off enough to see his brother's new tattoo. The date 08/11/89 and underneath 02/05/87. He smiled slightly, letting his brother turn to see it himself.

"Huh."

"Huh?" Sam repeated. "That all you've got to say on the matter?"

"Well honestly, I'm surprised it took me till twenty-nine to get drunk and wake up with a tat."

Sam smiled slightly, under different circumstances, he'd probably be rolling around on the floor in laughter. "I can't believe you don't remember getting it."

"It's kinda badass though right? Looks like a gang thing."

Sam rolled his eyes. "A gang thing? Dean, you're an idiot." He said lightly.

"Well, whatever."

Sam shook his head and left Dean to have a shower. He dropped into a chair and picked up the book he'd been reading before Dean had woken up, jumping slightly when his phone rang. "Hello?" He answered.

_"Hey kid."_ Bobby's voice answered over the phone.

"Hey Bobby, you found anything?"

_"Not yet, I'm still lookin' though.. How you doing?"_

"I'm alright." He said, realising that Bobby probably knew that he was lying through his teeth. "You know, it's hard but.. We're gonna bring her back." He finished quickly.

_"How about Dean?"_

"Well he went out last night, got wasted and then woke up with a tattoo he doesn't remember getting, so you tell me."

Bobby sighed. _"We'll work it out Sam."_

"Yeah.." He mumbled, praying to god that he was right.


	25. Chapter 25

Sam walked into the dark motel room, the only light coming from the dim lamp in the corner. He immediately pulled his gun as he walked inside, seeing someone was standing in the middle of the room facing away from him. "Don't move." He warned, pointing his gun towards the shadow. They stopped and held up their arms. "Alright, turn around." He said, realising there was no immediate threat and moving to turn on the light. As he turned it on his arm dropped to his side, his mouth hanging open as Kate turned to face him.

"Hey Sam." She said casually.

"Kate.." He stared at her in complete shock for a minute before holding out a knife. "You know I've gotta check you're you." He told her quietly.

She smiled at him and pulled out a knife. "Let me save you the trouble." She ran the knife over her arm and put it down on the table. She then picked up a bottle of holy water, pouring it over the cut, smiling at him when nothing happened. He took a step towards her and pulled her into a tight hug, she barely hugged him back before pulling away. He looked over her carefully, something seemed different to him. She even looked different. Like her usual calm face seemed cold and hard.

They both turned to the door as Dean walked into the room, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw her. "Kate?" He looked over at Sam who nodded at him.

"Hey Dean." He walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, getting nothing more than a small pat on the back before she pulled away.

He looked over her, the shock still clear on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Never better."

Dean looked over at Sam who shrugged at him, looking as confused as he did. "How'd you manage to bust out?" He asked her curiously.

"I dunno." She answered simply.

"You wanna try that again?" Dean asked her. "This time without the lying."

She turned to stand in front of him, narrowing her eyes. "Who says I'm lying?"

"I do. I mean you obviously know something or the first words out of your mouth would have been to ask us how we got you out."

"Maybe I'm just so happy to see you it slipped my mind." She mumbled sarcastically.

"What was that?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing." They both looked up at her as her phone rang from her back pocket. She pulled it out and looked at it before shoving it into her jacket pocket. "I've gotta nip out. I'll be back later." She said flatly, walking between them and slamming the door on her way out.

"What.." Dean shook his head. "What the hell was that about?"

"Search me."

He looked at him seriously. "Something's not right."

"She's her Dean. I checked her, silver knife, holy water.."

"C'mon Sam, that wasn't Kate."

"Look, I know she was acting kinda weird-"

"Weird?" He raised his eyebrows. "I'd say major bitch is the way to go."

"Dean-"

"I mean, after a month in hell I expected a hug or at least a 'hey how ya doin', not her to be back ten minutes and then bail."

"Dean, I bet you she remembers it. She's probably still trying to work through it."

"Sam, you know that wasn't her."

"Or maybe it was.. and maybe she's just.. different." Dean looked away from him. That freaked him out even more. The only thing worse than some creature coming back as her was her coming back bad.

Kate came back a few hours later with blood on her shirt and jeans, and from what Dean could tell, it wasn't hers. "What the hell happened to you?" He demanded, looking her up and down quickly.

"Nothing important." She muttered. "Where's Sam?"

"Store." He said simply, turning away from her and continuing to shove his stuff into his bag. He turned quickly when he heard the sound of a gun being cocked behind him. He ducked to the side as Kate fired the gun, just managing to move enough for the bullet to him the wall right beside his face. "What the hell was that?!" He yelled. "You nearly shot me in the freaking head!"

She smiled slightly and shrugged. "My bad."

"Your bad?!" He looked at her, his mouth hanging open, suddenly feeling a sense of relief as they heard the Impala pull up outside. He could see it on her face, somewhere he could tell that she knew she was busted. He turned from the door back to her, being met with a hard punch to the face before she moved quickly to the door and left before Sam came in.

Sam walked into the room to find Dean with a hand to his face, attempting to stop the blood flowing from his nose. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked, quickly crossing the room to him.

"She tried to shoot me in the friggin' head Sam."

"What?" He handed him a couple of tissues to try and stop the blood.

"She pointed a gun at my head and fired." He said simply, pointing to the bullet still stuck in the wall.

"Why would she want to do that?"

"Because she's not her!" He yelled, walking towards the bathroom.

Sam sighed heavily. "We'll talk to her."

"You wanna talk to her? What part of she's trying to kill us don't you understand?!" His face softened slightly as he stood in the doorway and looked at him. "You know that's not her. I know you don't want to accept it but deep down you know, that's not your sister Sam."

Sam looked down and nodded. He did know it wasn't her. And Dean was right, truth was he just didn't want to accept it, but he knew that he'd have to. And that they would have to do something about it before someone, most likely one of them, got hurt.


	26. Chapter 26

The motel door banged closed behind Sam as he walked quickly out of the room. "Dean, hold on!" He shouted after his brother.

"I don't care what you say, that is not my sister." Dean yelled over his shoulder as he stormed over the parking lot. They'd tried Sam's idea of talking to her which had quickly escalated to both Dean and Kate screaming at each other and Dean storming out before, in his words, someone got stabbed.

"Dean, wait up!" Sam called after him again. Dean stopped and turned to face him. "Just calm down."

"Sammy, why won't you listen to me?! That isn't Kate in there."

"Dean-"

"Look Sam, I know it's hard but.. that's not her. And the longer we leave, whatever the hell she is, the worse it's going to get."

"I know you think it's not her but let's face it.. we checked her. Silver knife, holy water. What else is there to do?"

"You checked her." He said after a minute.

Sam frowned in confusion. "What?"

"You checked her. Not we.." He stopped and thought about it. "Whose holy water was it?"

Sam thought back. "Hers. She pulled it out of her bag." He said slowly.

Dean threw his arms up and shook his head at his brother. "Nice job there Sammy. Way to check her."

"Wait, you don't think she's.."

"Well something's not right with her Sam, she tried to shoot me!"

"Yeah, so you keep saying." Sam said sarcastically, pulling Dean's car keys from his pocket and opening the trunk.

"What are you doing?"

Sam pulled out a bottle of holy water from the duffel bag in the car and shoved it into his pocket. "We'll throw that at her and see what happens." He said, slamming the trunk closed.

"And if she's not possessed?"

"Then we'll deal with it from there." Dean nodded at him before turning and walking back to their room. Sam walked in first, moving towards her and pulling out the bottle, throwing the water at her. She screamed and turned away, her eyes flashing black.

"Demonic little bitch." Dean snarled.

"You've been in her since she came back." Sam said to her.

She looked up at him and smirked. "You should learn to check the holy water Sammy." Dean pulled out the knife and took a step towards her, his face pure anger. Kate took a step back from him and grinned. "Whoa, not so fast. You know she's in here. Screaming at you."

Dean suddenly stopped and looked down at the knife. "Bitch." He whispered under his breath.

"Why'd you bring her back?" Sam cut in. "You wanted us dead, why not just kill us? Why use her?"

"Well you see, you Winchester's seem to have a habit of stabbing all the demons who come for you with that special little knife of yours. And I'm sure you can imagine, there's a lot of them that want you dead.. So, they sent you someone they knew you wouldn't plunge a knife into." She smirked.

"Well then we'll just exorcise you."

"I don't think so." She said as she walked straight at Sam and punched him in the face. Dean grabbed the back of her jacket to pull her way from him but she turned and kicked him in the stomach before punching him to the ground. "Neither of you are gonna bother fighting back are you?" Sam and Dean looked between each other, neither saying anything. "What's the matter guys, don't you wanna punch your baby sis?" She said smugly, throwing Sam across the room before kicking Dean hard in the chest from where he lay on the floor. She pulled the gun from the back of her jeans and aimed it towards Sam. Dean scrambled to his feet and ran at her from the side, grabbing her around the waist and lunging them both to the ground just as she fired, the bullet missing Sam by inches.

Kate tried to get to her feet but Dean kept her pinned to the ground with a hand over her mouth long enough for Sam to chant off an exorcism. She sat up and screamed as the black smoke left her body before falling back against the floor, lying still for a few seconds. They both stared at her body, Dean getting to his feet as Sam moved towards her and knelt beside her. He and Dean both jumped slightly as she shot up quickly. "Kate? That you?" He asked her slowly.

"Sam?" She breathed out, jumping forwards and throwing her arms around his neck, her hands gripping the back of his shirt. He pulled her closer to him as she began to cry. "Sam, I'm so sorry." She whispered.

He shook his head. "It's okay." He said softly as he pulled back and took her hands in his, pulling her to her feet and smiling at her. "You're okay."

Kate smiled at him and let go of his hands as she moved towards Dean who was still staring at her. She stopped in front of him and shrugged slightly with a smile. "Hey." She whispered.

"Hey." He said quietly, he looked at her for a minute before taking a step forwards and pulling her into a strong hug. He placed a hand to the back of her head and tightened his arm around her.

"Dean.." She mumbled into his chest after a minute. "I missed you too but, I can't breathe." He laughed and pulled back, gripping her shoulders. "I'm sorry for, ya know, trying to shoot you in the face."

He grinned and nodded. "Don't worry about it, I knew it wasn't you all along."

"Oh really?" She smirked at him.

"Uh-huh. No one plays my pain in the ass sister quite like you do." She looked up at him and smiled. "Kate, what happened?"

"You know what happened, they shoved a demon in me and sent it to kill you."

"Yeah, but why?"

She sighed and moved to sit at the table, Sam and Dean doing the same. "They asked me to do it. Said they'd let me out if I killed you. Obviously I told them to shove it.. Then one day, they said it was no longer up for negotiation or something like that. You pretty much know the rest." She shook her head and looked down. "My god, I could have killed you." She said quietly.

"This wasn't your fault sis. None of it was." Sam said gently.

Dean poured a glass of whiskey and handed it to her. "Bet you're starving right?" He asked her lightly. "I'll go pick up some food."

They both smiled at him as he left the room. Kate picked up the bottle of whiskey and poured another glass. "How long was I gone?"

"Just over a month." She nodded at him, not looking up. "Do you remember it?"

"Yeah." She said quietly. "I remember."

He sighed. "Kate I'm sorry.. It must have been awful."

"Well it sure wasn't fun, I mean hell's not really a pro-winchester kind of crowd.. but I'm okay."

"You don't have to lie."

"I'm not lying." She muttered, pouring another glass.

"Kate please, don't do this."

"Do what?"

"What Dean did. Pretend you're fine and think that you can make it all go away by chugging a bottle of whiskey."

"Sam-"

"I'm not going to watch you drink yourself to death. Not like-"

"Not like what? Like the last time you mean? When Dean was in hell?" She asked him harshly, sighing as he looked away from her. "I'm sorry. I'll be fine Sammy, really."

He looked at her and nodded, giving her a weak smile. Kate put the glass down and placed her arms around him again. He held onto her for a few minutes before pulling away and looking her in the eyes. "You promise you're okay?"

"Promise."

He smiled at her. "Don't you dare go anywhere again." She grinned at him and nodded.

Once they'd finished their food Kate went to have a shower, leaving Sam and Dean alone. "Does she remember?" Dean asked him.

"She says so. But she says that she's fine."

"You believe her?"

He glanced at the bathroom for a moment before answering. "No, I don't. You?"

"No way.. She was gone over a month. That's still like ten years down there."

Sam nodded. "She'll be alright." He said quietly, more to himself than Dean.

"Yeah."

That night, Dean rolled over in bed and glanced at the clock, 4:11AM. He groaned and ran a hand over his tired face, sitting up and frowning at his sister. She was sitting up in bed with her knees pulled towards her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs, staring at the wall in front of her with a blank expression on her face. "Kate?" He said softly. "What are you doing awake?"

"Couldn't sleep." She muttered, not looking at him. He paused and stared at her for a minute, sitting up to get a better look at her.

"Hell?" She kept her gaze fixed on her knees as she slowly nodded. "Kate." He said quietly, placing his arms around her and pulling her towards him. She leaned her head to his chest as Dean pulled a hand though her hair and rested his cheek against her head. "I'm guessing you had a few demons down there waiting for you.."

"Yeah.." She said slowly. "I met a few of your buddies down there."

"You what?"

"Some of them remembered you."

Dean shook his head. "My god." He whispered.

She smiled weakly. "Forget it." She shrugged. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Dean..?" He looked down at her. "Did you.. um.." She trailed off and looked away.

"What?"

"It's just.. I heard some stuff.. downstairs."

Dean frowned. "What kind of stuff?"

"That you were torturing again, while I was down there." Dean opened and closed his mouth, looking down and sighing. "So it's true?"

"I got desperate Kate."

"I take it Sam doesn't know?"

Dean shook his head. "We tried everything. Dealing with demons, dealing with angels.. Eventually I tried torturing a few into letting you out but.." He stopped and shrugged.

"You're okay though, right? I mean you don't.."

"You mean now that I've done it again, has it screwed up my head and sent me psycho?"

"Hey, you know I didn't mean that."

"I know, but I'm fine. You're not."

"Dean I-"

"You don't get it Kate, I've been there. I know you're not fine, you couldn't be. And ya know, I get that you probably don't wanna talk about it. But don't try to fix it with booze, it just makes it worse. Trust me." She nodded but didn't answer him. "You wanna try getting some sleep?"

"Sure." She mumbled. She lay down beside Dean, burying her head in his shoulder and clutching the front of his shirt. Dean placed a kiss to the side of her forehead and tightened his arms around her, waiting until she'd falling asleep before closing his own heavy eyes and doing the same.


	27. Chapter 27

Sam and Dean slammed their shot glasses down on the small table between them and smirked at each other. "Man, I think I'm getting drunk." Sam said.

"Duh." Dean grinned, taking a drink of his beer and scowling across the bar.

"Dude, relax." Sam smiled, knowing without turning around that he was looking at the guy currently buying their sister drinks.

"Seriously, what would be the harm in me going over there and punching him?"

"We've talked about this Dean, let's just leave her to it."

Dean drank another shot and sighed. "This bar kinda sucks."

"Yeah." Sam answered.

"I say we get Kate and go get wasted back at the motel."

"Yeah, something's telling me she's not going to be coming with us." Sam said, glancing over his shoulder at where she was standing.

Dean looked over at him again and glared. "Oh come on, he's near enough got his hand on her ass Sam."

Sam took full advantage of when the guy walked over to the bar. "C'mon, we'll go talk to her."

"You mean now the douchebag's not there for me to knock out?" Dean asked sarcastically, following Sam over to Kate.

"We're gonna go, you coming or..?"

"Uh, I think I'm good here for a while." She smiled.

"Okay, be careful." Sam said.

She nodded and smiled. "Sure."

"Hey, any funny business, you call us okay?" Dean told her seriously.

"Yes, Dean." Kate smirked at them as they turned to the door.

They walked out of the bar to the cold street. "What time is it?" Dean asked him.

"Half two."

"Huh, I say we find a liquor store, get a bottle of something strong and a six-pack.. Each." He grinned at him.

"You're on." Sam smirked.

A loud ringing woke Dean the next morning. It was times like this when he seriously regretted changing his sister's ringtone to some of his louder rock songs. He groaned and put a hand to his banging head. "Kate, your phone." He grumbed into his pillow. "Kate!" He said loudly as it started ringing again.

"Uh, Dean." He opened an eye to see Sam sitting up in his own bed. "She's not here."

Dean also sat up and looked around. "Where is she?"

"I dunno, I guess she didn't come back last night.. Maybe she went home with that guy she was talking to?"

Dean frowned and thought back to the night before. "He wasn't talking to her Sam. He was all over her." Sam pulled his face and climbed out of bed, walking over to her phone. "What time is it anyway?"

"Uh, 11:45. I guess we drank more than we thought."

"You're telling me." He mumbled, walking to the bathroom, still holding his head. "I think I might be hungover."

"Yeah, join the club."

The two of them stayed at the motel room all day, neither of them hearing anything from their sister. Dean had a look around for her when he'd been out to get them food but hadn't found her. "This is ridiculous. Even for Kate."

"Look, I'm sure she's okay."

"That's not the point Sam. She should have at least called."

"Alright, let's think about it. Where would a screwed up, post-hell twenty-three year old go?"

Dean sighed. "She's probably off somewhere getting drunk."

"Then we'll go find her."

"How? Check every bar in town?"

"Sure, there can't be that many of them. You take the car and look and I'll check the ones around here." Dean sighed and nodded, grabbing his jacket.

He walked into the third bar that night, this one even worse than the last two, and looked around slowly. He walked further inside, seeing his sister leaning against the bar with some blonde guy standing way too close to her for Dean's liking. She was wearing a skin-tight black dress and heels, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have recognised her if he hadn't looked at her properly. He looked the guy she was standing with up and down as he moved even closer to her. Dean glared at him and marched forwards, grabbing Kate around the arm. She turned to look at him. "Dean, hey!" She grinned at him. "You wanna drink?"

He frowned slightly and got a better grip of her arm. "You're coming with me." He told her, his tone leaving her no room to argue. She shrugged and allowed him to pull her away from the guy who stood in front of Dean, opening his mouth to argue with him. "Don't even try it buddy." Dean warned him before he dragged Kate out of the door. "Kate, what the hell are you doing?"

"What d'ya mean?" She asked, still smiling up at him.

"I mean what the hell are you doing? Huh? Dressed like that, staying out two nights without bothering to call, hanging out in shady bars with guys practically drooling on you-"

"Oh his name was Craig, he was cute right?" She grinned.

He frowned at her slightly in confusion and placed his hand under her chin, lifting her face to look at him. "Are you on something?" She laughed slightly but didn't answer him. "Kate? Are you stoned?"

"Maybe a little, I dunno.." She shrugged at him before smiling again.

"Alright, come on. We're out of here." He muttered, pulling her towards the car.

"Oh but hey, what about Craig?"

He took a deep breath and looked up for a second before smiling at her. "I gave him your number, he said he'll call you."

"Ah you did? You're the best Dean."

"Uh-huh." He mumbled.

"Hey, can I drive?" She asked as he pulled open the door for her. He let out a slight laugh before realising that she was serious.

"No way in hell are you driving my car in that state." He muttered as he closed the door and walked around the car to get in himself. He glanced at her as he started the car, reaching into the back seat and grabbing one of Sam's hooded jackets. "Here, put this on. Before you freeze to death." She pulled on the jacket and turned on the radio.

Once they arrived back at the motel, they got out of the car and walked towards the room, Sam pulling open the door for them. "Hey Sammy." Kate said cheerily as she walked inside. Sam glanced at Dean who simply shook his head at him and closed the door, watching her as she pulled some clothes from her bag and disappeared into the bathroom to get changed.

"Dude, she's wasted." Sam said once the door had closed. "Where was she?"

"Don't even ask." He mumbled, picking up a bottle of whiskey and pouring two glasses, handing one to Sam.

"Should we get her some coffee?" He suggested. "Sober her up a bit?"

"No way, nothing that's going to make her talk even more." Sam raised his eyebrows at him. "Forget it. We'll just let her sleep it off." They both looked up as she came out of the bathroom wearing some sweat pants and a t-shirt.

"You alright?" Sam asked her cautiously.

"Uh-huh. I'm great." She smiled.

Dean poured more whiskey into his glass and handed it to her. "Alright boozy, get that down you." He said, pulling the covers back on one of the beds. He took the empty glass from her and pointed at the bed. "Bedtime." Kate shrugged at him again before she climbed into bed, falling asleep quickly.

Sam and Dean sat down at the table and poured another drink. "What the hell happened?" Sam asked.

Dean sighed and looked up at him. "I don't know. I found her in some bar practically being groped by some guy." He said, sounding slightly disgusted.

Sam looked over at her. "How much has she had to drink?"

Dean shook his head. "I don't even think she's drunk. I think she's been taking something.. Or maybe both."

"Oh god, please don't say we're back to the drugs.. Is this about hell?"

"Probably. I'm guessing this is her attempt at blocking it out. Either way, we'll be having a serious chat about it in the morning."


	28. Chapter 28

"Mornin' bro." Dean said lightly, kicking the motel door closed with his foot and handing Sam a coffee.

Sam smiled at him and glanced over at their sister. "You hear her throwing up last night?" Dean shook his head. "Yeah, about half four. I got up but she said she was fine. She was asleep again in a couple of minutes."

"Huh. Well I can tell you one thing, that's nothing compared to the hangover she's going to have when she wakes up." He said, sounding more annoyed than he'd meant to.

"You mad at her?"

Dean thought about it for a minute. "Yeah, I am. Sleeping with random guys, letting them talk her into dressing like a hooker and then-"

"Wait, let me get this straight, she takes drugs and gets wasted.. and you're mad because she was with guys."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Hey, she's your little sister too, don't try and tell me that it doesn't bother you."

"Of course it bothers me. But, just don't yell at her alright? She wouldn't do something this extreme unless she was seriously messed up about something. I mean, the last time she was like this.."

Dean knew without asking that Sam was talking about the time he was in hell. "I know." He said softly. "And I know I wasn't around for that but Sam, you're not gonna have to fix her on your own this time alright?"

"Sure."

They both glanced up at her as she rolled over, sitting up with a groan. She climbed out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, closing the door softly behind herself. "Like I said, major hangover." Dean muttered. She came out of the bathroom a couple of minutes later and dropped down on the bed. "You look like death." Dean told her.

"If you're gonna yell at me can you do it later?" She said quietly, putting a hand to her forehead.

"We're not gonna yell at you." Sam said gently. "But Kate, you can't do stuff like that."

Dean crossed the room and handed her a couple of painkillers with some water. "Where were you the night before?"

"Uh, I was with that guy. What was his name?" She muttered, rubbing her eyes. "Jack.. Jake.. Something like that."

"And no phone call? No text? Kate, we were worried sick about you."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"And from where I found you last night, it didn't look like you were planning on coming back anytime soon." She looked down at her knees, not answering him. "Hold on, do you even remember where you were last night?"

She opened and closed her mouth. "Kinda."

Dean ran a hand over his face and shook his head. "Kate, you were drunk and high on god knows what in a bar full of guys staring at you like you were a piece of meat. And you can't even remember? Christ, anything could have happened to you." He said, raising his voice in frustration as his mind jumped to all the worst possibilities of what could have happened.

Sam could see him getting riled up about it again. "Dean, chill out alright." He said calmly. "Why don't you go pick up some more coffee huh?" Dean looked at him for a minute and nodded before turning and walking out of the room.

As the door closed, Sam crouched down beside the bed to look at Kate properly. "Alright, what's this about huh?" He asked her softly.

"I just-" She stopped and put a hand to her mouth. "Hold that thought." She mumbled as she jumped from the bed and ran to the bathroom. Sam instantly followed her and knelt behind her as she threw up again. He pulled back her hair and rubbed a hand up and down her back, wincing each time she was sick.

"You alright?" He asked her when she was done.

"Yeah, I'm good." She mumbled as he pulled her to her feet. "Just give me a minute yeah?"

"Sure." He smiled lightly, leaving the bathroom.

Kate leant against the sink, looking at herself in the mirror. She let out a long, shaky breath as she tried to focus her slightly blurred vision. "C'mon Kate, get a grip." She whispered to herself, splashing some cold water against her hot face. She could feel herself swaying slightly as she blinked hard and tried to steady herself.

"You want some more painkillers sis?" Sam asked over his shoulder as he heard the bathroom door open behind him. "Kate?"

"Sam.." She whispered. He turned to look at her, leaning against the door frame with a hand to her head, looking dizzy. Her face was pale and there were tears in her eyes, she actually looked scared.

"Hey, are you-" He stopped, managing to lunge forwards fast enough to grab her just before she hit the floor. He turned her so she was lying on the floor and tapped the side of her face, trying to wake her up. "Kate? Hey, wake up sis.. Come on Kate.. Kate!" His voice grew louder as he slapped her face as hard as he could without hurting her.

"Sam.." She murmured, her head moving to the side as a slight frown formed on her face.

"Kate, open your eyes, come on." He said desperately. "Kate? Can you hear me baby?" She nodded slightly as he picked her up and moved her towards a bed. "Jeez, you're burning up." He said as he placed a hand to her forehead. "Hey listen to me, I need you to sit tight okay? Dean's gonna be back in a minute, I need to run to the store and get you some stuff alright?" She nodded again as he pulled on his jacket and left the room.

Dean walked into the room to find Kate sitting alone on her bed, looking as though she was doing her best to stay conscious. He placed the coffees on the table and knelt on the bed in front of her, putting a hand to her damp cheek. Her face was pale and her breathing heavy. "Kate? You okay?" He asked her softly, doing his best not to freak out.

She slowly looked up at him and nodded. "I'm okay." She said, her voice barely a whisper.

"Where's Sam?" He turned as his brother walked into the motel room behind him. "What happened?"

"I dunno, she threw up and then she just passed out." He said quietly.

"Why is she like that? She's taken drugs before. And let's face it, she can easily drink you under the table.. she's never been anything like that before."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Funny Dean.. But where you found her, god knows what the people in there were taking. She could have been on anything. And then on top of whatever the hell else she's been taking the last two days. And then there's all the booze she's been drinking, the lack of sleep.. I bet you she hasn't eaten anything while she's been gone."

Dean placed his hands on her cheeks and gently pulled her face up to look at him. "Hey, can you hear me Kate?"

"Hmm.." She moaned, barely opening her eyes.

"We need to know what you were taking last night. Kate? Kate?" He shook her lightly. "Ah dammit."

Sam sighed and moved towards them, pulling back the sheets as Dean lay her down in bed. "Now what?"

"I dunno.. I guess we let her sleep it off?"

"You said that last night Dean, she woke up worse."

"Well I'm sorry Sam but I'm not seeing another option here."

Sam was about to answer when Kate's phone rang. He looked up at Dean who shrugged and answered it. "Yeah?"

_"Hey, is this the blonde douchebag that was trying to pick up my girlfriend last night?"_

Dean frowned, not entirely sure how to answer that one. "Excuse me?" Whoever it was, they sounded seriously high on something.

_"You heard me. That sexy little blonde chick. You should remember, you spent most of the night with your hands on her ass. She's my girlfriend."_

"You mean the chick that you pumped full of drugs?" He answered, his voice turning threatening. "Buddy, she's not your girlfriend."

_"Who is this?"_

"I'm the brother of that 'sexy little blonde chick.'" Dean said, mocking his voice. "You remember, the one who you almost killed getting her to take god knows what."

_"What me and your sister do is none of your damn business so-"_

"Come around here and say that and I'll make it my damn business, you understand me? Don't think that I can't find you, because trust me, I can." There was no answer for a minute before he heard a dial tone. He squeezed the phone hard and dropped it to the table.

"Who the hell was that?" Sam asked him.

"Her drug buddy."

"Well what did he say?"

"Nothing, he thought I was douchebag Craig." He muttered sarcastically.

"Wait, who?" He asked him, genuinely confused.

"Forget it." He said, walking over to her and sitting down on the side of her bed, placing a hand on her cheek. "How long's she gonna be like this?"

"I don't know Dean. I can't tell you the side effects of a drug that I don't know."

"Right, sorry." He said quietly. "It's just as soon as we think we've got her back, she goes and does this. She's gonna end up killing herself."

"Dean, don't say that."

"Oh come on Sam, look at her." Sam sighed as he looked over her chalk-white face.

"She's tough. She'll wake up and then we'll fix it."

"How? Huh? She's not a kid anymore, we can't control what she does. So you tell me, how the hell do we fix this?"

"I don't know, but we will alright? We always do.. Think about everything she's been through. All the danger and the hunts gone wrong and all the times she's practically been at death's door.. She always pulls through Dean because that's who she is."

Dean shook his head and got to his feet. "I think she might have well and truly given up this time Sam."

"Doesn't sound to me like she's the one who's given up." Sam said quietly, nodding at the whiskey that Dean was pouring into his coffee.

"I haven't given up Sam. I haven't. I just wish I knew how to help her."

"Yeah, you and me both."

They sat in the motel room for a couple of hours, Sam on his laptop and Dean watching tv. "She should've woken up by now." Dean said, sitting up and looking at Kate.

Sam sighed. "Maybe you should get some air. You're only gonna get worked up sitting and staring at her like that." Dean looked up at him and thought it over, an idea suddenly occurring to him. He stood from the bed and crossed the room, picking up Kate's phone. "Dean, what are you doing?"

"I think I might go and find her little friend."

"What are you gonna do?" Sam asked him, narrowing his eyes.

"Nothing, just ask him what he gave her.. Then maybe kick his ass. We'll see how it plays out."

"Dean-"

"Relax Sam, I'm not gonna murder the guy.. Well, maybe.." He shrugged. "I won't be long, call me if she wakes up."

"Sure." He answered.

Not long after Dean left, Kate woke up. Sam looked up from his laptop to her as he heard her move. He walked over and sat on the side of her bed as she opened her eyes. "Sam?" She whispered.

"Yeah, it's me." She smiled weakly and sat up to look at him. He ran a hand over her cheek and looked at her sadly. "You're okay." He said quietly. "You're okay, but you're really stupid."

"Sam.."

"What the hell were you thinking? What are you doing to yourself Kate?"

"I dunno.." She answered, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"What happened?"

She shrugged and looked at him, tears glistening in her eyes. "Life happened."

Sam felt his heart practically break there. She looked so broken and hopeless. "I know it's hard sis, but why would you turn back to drugs?"

"They made me feel better."

He sighed and shook his head. "Why didn't you talk to me? Or Dean? Why didn't you let us help you?" She didn't answer him, letting the tears fall down her cheeks. He pulled her towards him and held her as she cried.

"Sam, I'm sorry. " She mumbled into his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. Come on, calm down.. It's okay.. It's all gonna be okay." He kissed the top of her head and held her until she'd calmed down.

Dean came back to the motel room a couple of hours later to find both Sam and Kate sleeping. He smiled slightly to himself and walked towards them, putting a hand to Sam's shoulder and shaking him slightly. He opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at him. "Dean? You're back." He mumbled tiredly.

"Everything okay?" Sam looked down at Kate, who was leaning against his side, and moved her gently off him so that he could get up.

"She's okay. She should be back to normal in a couple of days."

Dean breathed a sigh of relief. "That's something then? Now we've just got to fix the hell part of it."

Sam nodded at him sadly. "That's the hard part." He mumbled glumly.


	29. Chapter 29

Dean woke up to someone shaking him gently on the shoulder. He opened an eye to look up at Kate who was sitting on the bed beside him. "Nightmare?" She nodded slowly, lying down beside Dean as he held out an arm, placing it around her shoulders. "It's okay, you're safe.. You wanna talk about it?" He offered gently, already having a pretty good guess at what her answer would be. She shook her head against his shoulder. He sighed and looked down at her in the darkness. "Kate please, just tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours."

"I don't wanna do it anymore." She whispered. "I'm just so tired. Of all of it."

"Kate what..?"

She shook her head and ran a hand over her face, even though he couldn't properly see her, Dean was sure she was wiping away tears. "I just.. I haven't got the energy to even pretend like I wanna carry on anymore."

He sat up slightly to get a better look at her face, tears shining in his own eyes. "Kate, I don't think you know what you're saying."

"You keep asking me to talk to you, I'm talking."

"You're talking like.. Like you're gonna do something stupid."

She shook her head and rested it against his shoulder again. "I just wanna sleep but.." She trailed off.

"Come on." He said gently, tightening his arm around her. "I've got you." He sighed deeply as she fell asleep. He knew how screwed up she was because he'd been there himself, and it killed him to know that there was no way of ever making her forget what had happened to her down there. He'd always though of Kate as being happy. Through anything that had been put in front of them over the years, she was always the one who still had the smile on her face. The one who, no matter what, would never fail to make him or Sam smile when they were down. But now, it was like she was a whole different person.

Once she had fallen asleep, Dean climbed out of bed and poured himself a glass of whiskey, sitting down at the table and putting his head in his hands. "Little early for that isn't it?" He heard Sam mumble, his voice slurred with sleep. Dean merely grunted, not answering him. Sam got out of his own bed and turned on the dim light in the corner of the room before moving to sit with him. "So what's eating away at you so bad you're drinking at four in the morning?"

"What?"

"You've got that look. The one you get when you know something bad but you don't wanna tell me what's wrong.. What's happened?"

Dean sighed and looked over at Kate. "She woke up earlier, nightmare, and she said something.." He trailed off and shook his head.

"What did she say?" Sam asked, concern growing in his chest.

"She said she's tired of it. That she doesn't have the energy to pretend like she wants to keep going."

Sam didn't say anything for a couple of minutes as he thought about it. "Did she say anything else?"

"No.. I mean a part of me thinks yeah, she was probably just tired, feeling pretty crappy and not thinking about what she was saying.."

"And the other part?"

"The other part thinks that maybe she's a little more depressed than we thought." He answered quietly.

"I hate to say it Dean, but I think that part of you might be right."

"You think she's depressed?"

"I don't know. I mean she used to love life, no matter what. Now she's talking like someone on the verge of suicide."

"No." Dean said quickly. "We're not using the 's' word. Not around her anyway."

"Come on, you don't think she'd actually try something like that."

"A couple of months ago I'd have said no way but lately, she's a different person. We can't help her because she won't tell use what's going on in her head."

"Then we'll have to try talking to her again."

Kate shot up in bed the next morning, her breathing heavy and uneven. She looked around the room quickly, noticing that her brothers were gone but Castiel was standing at the foot of the bed, a slight frown on his face. "Cas?"

"Hello Kate." He said simply.

She took a breath and ran a hand over her face, pushing her nightmare to the back of her mind as she climbed out of bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Your brother's asked me to watch you while they were out." She smiled lightly and nodded, taking a step towards him and pulling him into a hug. Castiel smiled and hugged her back. "It's nice to have you back Kate." He said quietly.

"Thanks." She grinned and pulled back, looking up at him as a frown formed on his face.

"Are you alright? Dean told me about your nightmares. And about the drugs."

She looked down for a second and sighed. "I'm alright."

Castiel tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure?"

"Well, no but.." She shrugged. "I will be."

Dean walked into their motel room after dropping Sam off at the library and buying himself some coffee. When he came back, his sister's bed was empty. He walked further into the room as the bathroom door opened. Dean smiled at her as she walked out. "Hey, didn't expect you to be up yet." She didn't answer him as she walked towards him. "You're looking better.. You scared the hell out of me, you know that?"

She nodded and threw her arms around him. "Dean, I'm sorry. For all of it."

"Don't worry about it." He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "Just promise me you won't do anything like that again."

"Promise." She whispered as he pulled her back into a tight hug.

He let go of her and put the back of his hand to her forehead. "You know you still look kind of pale, maybe you should sit down?" They moved towards the couch and sat down beside each other. Dean placed his arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. "You're gonna be okay Kate. You'll get through this, I know you will."

She shook her head. "I can't handle it Dean. The nightmares and.."

"Hey, you can. I know it's hard now but it will get easier. Trust me." She shook her head again and let a tear roll down her cheek. Dean wiped it away and looked at her sadly.

"You're still mad at me. I can tell." She said softly.

He sighed and looked at her. "I'm not mad. I'm just worried about you. You were taking drugs, with strangers. Don't you get how dangerous that could have been?"

She nodded slowly and looked down. "Yeah, I get it."

"Then why?"

"I wasn't thinking. And I know that's not an excuse, trust me, I'm not trying to make one but.. I dunno Dean.. I just want it to stop." She whispered. He pulled her closer to him and rested his chin on her head softly.

"I know. But what you're doing, isn't going to make it any better."

"Yeah.." She said quietly. "Hey listen, I'm gonna have a shower.

"Okay." He smiled as she walked towards the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind herself.

Kate leaned against the door and sighed deeply before walking towards the mirror and staring at herself. Her skin was still paler that usual and there were dark circles under her eyes. It suddenly all hit her that she'd nearly killed herself. "You're such an idiot." She muttered to herself quietly as she shook her head at her reflection.

When she came out of the bathroom, Sam and Dean were sitting at the table waiting for her. She gave them a small smile as she sat down, not looking forward to the conversation she knew they were about to have. The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes until Dean spoke up. "Do you remember what you were taking?"

She shook her head. "No. I just sort of.. took it." Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Yeah, I get it was stupid."

"As long as we're all in agreement." Dean muttered.

"What do you remember?" Sam asked curiously.

"I remember going out with you two.. And then going back with that guy.. Then the next day he told me that he knew some guys, he wanted me to meet them."

"And you agreed?"

She frowned as she thought back. She knew it sounded stupid, even for her. "I was drunk. We were drinking all day."

"So he picked you up in a bar, got you wasted, banged you, continued to get you wasted, dressed you up like a hooker and then introduced you to his drug dealing friends?"

"Well, that's a nice choice of words Dean but yeah, that's pretty much it."

"So how'd you end up with douchebag Craig?" He asked.

"That the running nickname for him now or something?" Sam asked him sarcastically.

"Who's Craig?" Kate asked, looking between them.

"That blonde guy you had draped over you when I found you." She opened and closed her mouth, shaking her head. "You don't remember that?" She shook her head again. "Wow."

"Look Dean, I'm not proud of it if that's what you think?"

"That's not what I think. I think you made a mistake yeah, but you know that. So what's the point in yelling about it?"

She nodded, not saying anything for a few minutes. "So.. Are we done?"

Sam and Dean looked between each other. "There's something else.." Sam started. "And I want an honest answer this time."

She sighed, realising what they were getting at. "Guys, how many times do I have to say it, I'm fine." She said, standing and walking across the room.

Sam sighed heavily and stood up, Dean standing slightly behind him. "Kate, for god's sake, you are not fine! And you know what, you're the only one of us who thinks that you have to be!" She kept her back to him, not saying anything. Sam shook his head and softened his voice. "Look, I know you don't like talking about stuff but you should know that you can tell us you're not alright without having to go into detail about it."

"Sam, I know you're just trying to help but I really, really don't want to have this conversation." She said quietly, still refusing to look at them. "I'm okay."

"Stop lying to us!"

"I'm not lying!" She said loudly, turning to face him.

"Yes you are! You have a habit of lying about things like this!"

She shook her head. "Sam."

"Seriously. Why can't you just say that you're not okay?"

"You want me to say it? Fine!" She yelled back. "I'm not okay. I'm about as far from okay as you could possibly get, but what do you want me to do huh? Sit around and cry about it.." She trailed off as the tears fell down her cheeks, finally breaking down.

Sam took a step towards her and pulled her into a hug, suddenly feeling awful about losing his temper with her. "Look, Kate I'm sorry." He said quietly. She pulled back and took a deep breath, calming herself down. Sam put a hand to her cheek, wiping away her tears and smiled. "You'll be alright."

"I know I will. And you know why?" He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "Because I've got two awesome brothers who always make sure of it. No matter how much of a pain in the ass I am about it." She grinned. They both laughed at her before smiling at each other, feeling better that she was finally laughing again..

_So I think I'm gonna make the next chapter a bit happier.. All this sad writing's getting me down ;-) Hope ya liked, thanks for reading again! :D_


	30. Chapter 30

Dean woke up feeling someone walking across his bed and sitting down beside him. He blinked open an eye to see his sister sitting cross-legged on the middle of his bed, holding out a cup of coffee. ''Mornin' sunshine.'' She grinned at him. Dean grunted and sat up, taking the cup from her. ''Jeez, I've never met anyone as grumpy as you are in the mornings.''

''Bite me.'' He muttered, taking a drink and getting out of bed. Kate leaned back against the pillows and watched him as he opened his bag, looking for a clean shirt.

''Wait.'' She said just as he was about to pull a shirt over his head. ''Turn around.'' He frowned in confusion but did as she said. ''My god, I can't believe you actually did it..''

''Wha-'' He stopped, realising she was talking about his tattoo. ''If it counts for anything, I can't remember getting it done.''

''Oh.'' She smirked. ''I'm not gonna laugh.''

''What's funny about that?'' He grinned.

''You got our dates of birth tattooed on your back.. Man, you totally love us.'' She said, falling backwards and laughing.

''Hey, I was drunk. I do not want this holding over me.''

''You're right, you're right. I'm sorry.'' She said before laughing again. He sat down beside her and began laughing himself.

''You're in a good mood this morning.'' He smirked at her.

She shrugged at him and smiled widely, looking up as Sam came out of the bathroom. She went in as Sam came out, leaving him and Dean alone. ''She's in a good mood.'' He commented simply. Sam nodded and picked up his own coffee. ''She seem a bit.. hyper.. to you?''

''Doesn't surprise me, I think that's like her fourth black coffee this morning.'' He said, sitting down with his laptop.

Dean glanced down at his watch and raised an eyebrow. ''It's half eight.''

Sam shrugged. ''I don't think she went to bed last night, I woke up about six and she was up looking for a hunt.''

''Poor kid.'' He mumbled, smiling as she came out of the bathroom.

''Yo Sam, you found us a hunt yet?'' She asked him.

''Maybe.'' He said looking back down at his laptop. ''A few people dead in Ohio, looks like a wendigo.''

''When does camping season start? Like is there specific dates or is it just a phrase..'' Dean asked absent-mindedly after a few minutes, looking over at Sam.

''Why are you asking me?''

''Because you're the only one in the room who managed to graduate high school. Although, I still got further than you.'' He grinned, pointing at Kate.

''Hey, I could have graduated if I'd have wanted to.''

''Um Kate, I hate to break it to you but there's a big difference between dropping out and being thrown out. You were thrown out.''

''And if I hadn't been I'd have graduated. You on the other hand dropped out, you quit because you sucked.''

Sam laughed and rolled his eyes at them. ''Seriously guys? People are dying.''

Dean nodded and stood up. ''You're right. Let's go save these people!''

Once they arrived in town a few hours later, they found that not only did they have a wendigo to take out but also three of the local teenagers were camping somewhere in the woods. They drove to the edge of the woods and began walking through the trees. Sam groaned as Kate shoved Dean in the arm. The two of them had not stopped fighting since they'd left their last motel room. They'd managed to get from school to movies to music and everything in between and they were getting on Sam's last nerve. ''Guys seriously, we're supposed to be hunting down a wendigo. Your argument over cartoons isn't helping.''

''That ended like ten minutes ago Sam. It's politics now.'' Dean smirked.

''How can you be arguing about something that neither of you know anything about?'' He took a deep breath and stopped walking. ''You know what, we should split up.''

''What?''

''It's getting dark, we've got a wendigo to kill and three teenagers out here somewhere. And no offence, but you're both driving me nuts.''

''He's right. Rude. But right.''

Dean nodded. ''Alright, be careful!'' He called after Sam as he walked away from them. ''And you, don't get yourself eaten.'' He said, handing Kate a flare gun.

''My god, you don't understand how much I wanna kill you right now.'' She smirked to herself, walking away.

Dean rolled his eyes and began walking in a different direction. He walked for about an hour without finding anything until he saw two guys and a girl running towards him quickly. They stopped in front of him, all out of breath. ''Hey man, you gotta run.. There's something in the woods.'' One of the guys said to him.

''Did you see anyone else out here?''

''There was a girl but she-''

''Was there a guy with her?''

The guy shook his head. ''Stab in the dark here.. She got herself caught saving your asses right?'' He rolled his eyes when they all nodded at him. ''Alright listen up-'' He stopped, looking up when they heard a loud shriek. He saw a fire in the distance and then Sam running towards them. ''Did you kill it?''

''Yeah, where's Kate?'' Sam asked, looking alarmed.

''It took her. She's probably strung up somewhere.'' Sam looked back for a second before turning back to Dean. ''You get these guys out, I'll go find her.''

''You sure?'' Sam asked but Dean was already running away from them in the direction that Sam had come from. He ran for about ten minutes before stopping and pulling out his phone, calling Kate's number. After a few minutes he heard a faint ringing. It didn't take him long to find Kate, hanging from the roof of a cave by her wrists. She looked up quickly as he ran towards her.

''Dean?''

''To the rescue.'' He grinned, pulling out a knife. He stopped just before cutting her loose. ''You still wanna kill me?'' He asked her in a cocky voice.

''Maybe later.'' She smirked. ''Just hurry up.''

''Nah, maybe I'll leave you hanging here and let the angry wendigo eat you.'' She swung forwards and kicked him.

''Let me down or I swear I will kill you.''

''Fine.'' He said, catching her as she fell.

As soon as she was back on her feet she punched him in the chest. ''Remind me again why I associate myself with you.''

''Because I'm your brother and you love me.'' He smirked, walking after her.

''Did you kill it?'' She asked over her shoulder.

''Yeah, Sam got it. He's getting those kids out.''

It didn't take them long to find their way out of the woods and back to the car where Sam was sitting on the hood waiting for them. ''You guys okay?'' They both nodded at him. ''And you're done arguing?'' They grinned at him and nodded again. ''Thank god for that.''

Dean pulled the keys from his pocket and tossed them to Sam. ''You can drive.''

''Wow. You are in a good mood.''

''Yeah well, winning an argument will do that to a person.''

''I'm sorry what was that?'' Kate asked him sarcastically.

''You heard.''

''Yeah, you realise you didn't win right?''

Sam dropped his head to the steering wheel, the horn letting out a long beep, momentarily drowning out Dean and Kate's voices. ''-which you know is completely stupid.'' Kate finished.

''Oh that's stupid. Do you hear yourself?'' Dean yelled over his shoulder. ''Do not make me come back there.''

''That's it! Out!'' Sam yelled over them, opening his own door. They stopped and looked at each other with a shrug, both getting out of the car. Sam took the opportunity to close his door again and lock theirs.

''Dude, what the hell?'' Dean yelled through the window.

''You're driving me crazy. Sort your stupid fight out on the walk back.'' He smirked, driving off. They stood and watched him drive away with their mouths hanging open.

''This is entirely your fault.'' Kate muttered as she started walking. ''And it's starting to freaking rain!''

''My fault? How the hell is this my fault?'' He yelled after her.

''You, thinking Spiderman could beat Superman in a fight. I mean come on.''

''Hey! I bet you he'd be smart enough to carry Kryptonite.''

''God, I hate you.'' She yelled over her shoulder.

''You're laughing. I know you're laughing.''

''No I'm not. I'm pissed at you.''

''Turn around then.''

She straightened her face and turned to look at him, her face breaking into a grin before she started laughing. ''Why the hell are we arguing about this?''

''Because it was more interesting than our argument over pizza.'' He said simply. ''And besides, at least we both agree on Batman being the coolest of all of them.''

''Yes we do.'' She grinned before bursting out laughing. Dean threw an arm around her shoulder and walking back to the motel.

Sam looked up as Kate walked into the motel room, dripping wet. ''Hey Sam.'' She smiled.

''Jeez, I didn't know it was raining so bad.'' He said guiltily. ''Where's Dean?''

''Oh I killed him and buried his body on the side of the road.''

He laughed nervously. ''You're kidding right?''

She laughed at him and pulled off her jacket. ''Come here.''

''What?''

''Come here.'' She said again.

He frowned but stood up and walked over to her. She grabbed his hands and smirked as the motel door opened behind Sam. His confused face changing to shock quickly as Dean threw a bucket of cold water over him. He jumped and turned to face his brother, standing with a dopey grin on his face. ''Looks like we're all cold and wet now doesn't it?'' He smirked. Sam grinned and shook his head, flicking water at him and shoving him in the chest as Dean grabbed him in a headlock, feeling as though things might finally be getting back to normal..


	31. Chapter 31

"So you honestly think there's a hunt here?" Dean asked his brother skeptically, looking out of the car window at the quiet street in front of them. "Seems a little too.. normal.. to say it's meant to be crawling with ghosts."

"I dunno.. Some guys claim they've seen a ghost." Sam muttered absent-mindedly, not looking up from the book on his knee.

"Uh-huh, and where were these claims exactly?"

"Their website." He answered quietly.

Dean turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "So this is gonna be a bunch of morons in their mom's basement claiming they've been raped by Casper?"

Sam let out a laugh. "Probably. But we were passing through town, I just thought we should check it out."

Dean nodded. "Yeah you're right, you never know."

Sam glanced over his shoulder at Kate who was sleeping in the backseat. All she seemed to do during the day was sleep because she couldn't sleep at night. "Should we wake her up?" He asked quietly.

"Nah, take her back to the motel." Dean said as he looked into the backseat. "I'm so confident these kids are douchebags, I'll investigate it alone." He smirked.

Sam shook his head and sighed. "You think she's getting better. At all?"

"Sure she is. I mean she's quit the drinking all together which, if you ask me, isn't the smartest move when you're a hunter." Sam rolled his eyes. "And yeah, she's still having the nightmares but she's definitely sleeping better than she was."

Sam gave a weak smile and nodded. "Yeah."

"Seriously Sam, she'll be alright. Quit worrying about her." He said giving him a reassuring smile. "And get some sleep yourself, you look exhausted."

"Thanks bro, you look great too." He muttered sarcastically.

"Oh Sam, I always look great." Dean gave him a quick smile before climbing out of the car and walking away. Sam laughed to himself as he switched seats and started the car, driving to the nearest motel. He pulled up and left the car to go and get them checked in. When he came back, Kate was awake and leaning against the car.

"Hey." Sam said as he walked towards her.

"Hey." She smiled. "Where are we?"

"Indiana. Just checking something out while we're passing through. Probably nothing." She nodded and grabbed her bag, following him towards their motel room.

When Dean came back to the room a couple of hours later, Sam was lying on one of the beds watching tv while Kate sat at his laptop. "You find anything?" Kate asked as he sat down with a sigh.

"Nah, there's no job here. Just a jackass wearing eyeliner." Sam sat up and raised his eyebrows at him questioningly. "Dudes shouldn't wear make up Sam."

"I dunno.. I like a guy in eyeliner." Kate said absent-mindedly, not looking up from the laptop. Sam supressed a laugh as Dean glared at her.

"You don't like any guys until I say so. Eyeliner or not." She rolled her eyes at him and smirked to herself.

"So I guess that means you won't want to meet Kyle then?" She asked innocently.

His head snapped up to look at her. "Who?"

"Oh, no one. Right Sam?" She said, looking over at him. Sam broke out laughing, falling backwards to lie on the bed holding his stomach. "Never mind." She muttered, standing and walking towards the bathroom, holding back a laugh.

Dean stood up and followed her, banging on the door. "Hey, you get your ass out here!" There was no answer as he turned to Sam. "Is she kidding?"

"Of course she's kidding." He said before sitting up to look at him, tears in his eyes. "Dude, why do you let her get to you?"

"What?"

"You're so easy to wind up when it comes to this. It's why she does it." He grinned at him. "You fall for it, every time."

Dean thought about it for a couple of minutes. "Shut up Sam." He muttered, sitting down and messing with the dials on the radio. "Man, the radio stations in this place really- wahay!" He grinned, looking thoroughly pleased with himself when he found a station playing Metallica.

They looked up as Kate walked out of the bathroom, throwing her arms up and banging her head to the music. They both laughed at her, Dean throwing a pillow at her from where he sat. She caught it and threw in back at him, jumping up and down. "You're such a dork." Sam grinned, putting an arm around her as she sat down next to him.

"You see Sam, this is what I mean when I say she was adopted."

"Oh come on Dean, she dyes her hair brown and she's practically your clone." Sam said flatly.

"She was adopted by people who looked like us." He argued.

"Hold on, you're saying I look like him?" Kate asked, looking up at Sam.

"Yeah, you saying I look like a chick?"

Sam rolled his eyes and smirked. "Lose the smirk Sam, before I slap you."

"Slap me?" He repeated, sounding amused.

"Yeah, slap you." She grinned at him.

"You've never slapped anyone in your life Kate. Punching, sure. But slapping? Come on."

"Hey, she's bitch slapped me before." Dean cut in.

"You deserved it." She muttered.

"I'm not even gonna ask." Sam said as he walked over to the table and picked up a beer, handing one to Dean. "You want one?" He asked, holding out a bottle to Kate.

"Uh, I think I'm good, thanks." She smiled.

He looked over at her, knowing what she was thinking. "Kate, you're allowed to have a beer. You made one stupid mistake, doesn't mean you can never drink again. I promise, I wont let you get drunk."

"Alright fine, but just one." Sam smiled and handed it to her, sitting down beside her and laughing at the movie she had put on, some action movie full of violent car chases.

"That's how you drive." He said to her.

"What? No it's not."

"It is, you drive like a psycho."

"I'm a perfectly safe driver."

"Yeah, in your head."

"I'll have you know, I taught her to drive." Dean cut in.

"I rest my case." Sam smirked at him.

Dean laughed and stood up. "You're both idiots. I'm gonna get us some food." He said as he pulled on his jacket. "I'm thinking cheeseburger."

"You're always thinking cheeseburger. It's like a one track mind up there." Kate grinned. "Food and porn."

"I think about other stuff too." He said defensively.

"Right, I forgot. Your car."

"Yeah, yeah." He smirked, walking out of the room. He couldn't help the small laugh that escaped him as he shook his head to himself and walked over the parking lot.


	32. Chapter 32

Dean walked into the motel room, kicked off his snow-covered boots and shrugged off his jacket. He walked towards the bed where Kate and Sam were still sleeping, sitting on the end of it he smiled to himself, they looked so peaceful when they slept. But obviously, since he'd been out in the cold to get food, he couldn't be having that. ''Guys! Wake up!'' He yelled. They both woke with a start and looked from him to each other. ''Breakfast.'' He grinned, throwing them both a bag of food. They both got out of bed and joined Dean at the table. ''Oh. And merry christmas.'' He smiled, taking a drink of his coffee.

They both laughed. ''You too.'' Sam smirked at him.

After they'd finished their breakfast, Kate went for a shower. She came out of the bathroom and looked between her brothers, both standing in the middle of the room with dopey grins on their faces. ''What?'' She asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

''Look, I know we don't normally do this kind of thing but, we got you something.'' Sam said, handing her a small present.

''What? Guys we never get each other anything.'' She honestly couldn't remember the last time they'd bothered buying each other presents, they usually just made sure that they spent the day together.

''We know. But we just thought with everything you've been through lately that we'd get you something.''

She smiled and opened the box, showing a silver necklace with a small heart on it. ''So you like?'' Dean asked her.

''I love.'' She grinned, taking it from the box and putting it around her neck. ''You didn't have to do this ya know.''

''We wanted to.'' Sam smiled.

She walked over to him and pulled him into a hug before doing the same with Dean. ''Thank you.'' They both smiled warmly at her. ''Now I feel awful for not getting you guys anything.'' She said with a laugh.

''We got our kid sister back. That's enough for us.'' He said, putting an arm around her.

Dean rolled his eyes. ''Jeez Sammy, you're always so emotional at christmas.'' He smirked, not arguing when Sam put his other arm around his shoulder.

They stood in their awkwardly positioned Winchester styled hug for a few minutes smiling at each other before letting go. ''I love you guys.'' Kate said quietly.

''Us too.'' Sam said, looking at Dean who nodded.

_Sorry guys, I know it was really short but I just couldn't resist doing something christmassy ;D I hope you all have a great christmas and an amazing new year! Thanks for reading! :)_


	33. Chapter 33

_I want to say a massive thank you to Mayrem for giving me the idea for this chapter! Thanks for reading guys and as always, hope you enjoy :) _

Sam, Dean and Kate hit another town with another hunt. They had been there a week working on taking out a vampire nest. When they'd finished with the hunt, Dean suggested that they should go out to a bar and celebrate. They hadn't been sitting in the busy room for long when Sam noticed something was up with Kate. "Everything okay?" He asked her, realising how quiet she'd been for the last few minutes.

"Oh yeah, I'm great." She smiled at him. "You know what, I think we should go."

He frowned in confusion. "We just got here."

"Yeah I know but.." She shrugged. "Ya know, we could always go to another bar."

Sam turned to Dean and raised an eyebrow. He watched her as she turned towards the wall, pretending to rub her neck. He looked over at the guy who had walked past her at the time. "You know him or something?" He asked, nodding at the guy.

She looked over her shoulder. "Know who?"

"That guy. You know, the one you just did everything you could to avoid looking at."

"No." She said quickly.

"Kate?" Dean pressed, suddenly becoming much more interested in their conversation.

"I don't know him." She said defensively, finishing her drink.

"Okay." Sam said, standing up and going to the bar to get them another drink. They sat there for a while, Sam and Dean both watching the guy intently the whole time. "You're fine, he's gone." Sam muttered.

"Who?"

"The guy you claim you don't know."

"I told you, I don't know who he is. I don't know what you're talking about."

"You always did suck at lying." Dean told her flatly.

"Dean, I lie for a living."

"Well, you always sucked at lying to you." She shook her head at him and smiled slightly. They sat there for another couple of hours, none of them mentioning him again.

"Um, Kate?" Sam said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"That guy you said you didn't know.. If you were lying, now might be a good time to tell us."

She looked up at him and frowned. "Why?"

"Because he just walked in with another guy, and he doesn't look particularly.. friendly."

She rested the side of her against her fist, looking away from the bar and facing away from them. "I told you, I-"

"Kate, they're looking straight at you so they obviously know who you are. Who the hell are they?" Dean said to her. "You either tell me or I'm going over there to ask them myself. Forcefully."

She looked up at him for a second before glancing at where they were standing at the bar. "You know what, you guys stay here, I'm gonna head back to the motel."

Dean looked up at Sam who shrugged at him and sighed. "You want us to come with you?"

"No it's fine, really." She smiled.

"Are you sure everything's alright?"

"Uh-huh." She mumbled quickly. "I'll see you later." She stood up and picked up her jacket, walking straight to the door and leaving the bar before he had the chance to carry on the conversation.

"That's a no, Kate style." Dean said, taking a drink of his beer.

"Definitely a no."

"You think we should go with her?" Dean asked but Sam didn't seem to be listening. "Sam?"

"Hold on a second."

Dean looked at him, he was frowning and obviously thinking hard about something. "What?"

"Dean, the guy who just came in.. He's the guy she was with when she was taking all the drugs."

"What?"

"That other guy was there, he was one of his friends. He must have called him."

Dean looked over at the bar quickly. "Well where the hell are they?"

"Ah crap, let's go." They walked quickly out of the door and into the parking lot. Sam pointed to where Kate was walking away. "Kate!" He yelled. She turned to face them and began making her way back to them.

"What's up?" She asked, looking between them.

"Katy! Baby!" Someone yelled over the parking lot. They all turned to see the two guys from the bar walking towards them. They stopped beside them, the taller of the two slipping an arm around Kate's waist. "Hey babe."

"Get your hands off me." She said, pushing him hard in the chest.

"Oh, you weren't saying that on our last date."

"Let go of her, now." Sam threatened him, his voice dangerously low.

"Who's your friend Katy?" He asked, letting go of her and turning to Sam.

She ignored him and turned to her brother. "Sammy come on." She said gently, pulling him away from them.

"New boyfriend already huh?" He smirked at her. "Never mind, I like 'em slutty."

Dean opened his mouth to say something but Sam beat him to it. "Call her that again and I'll knock you out myself." He warned. Dean looked at Kate who was apparently as taken aback as he was. Usually Sam left it to Dean to deal with these kinds of situations.

"You know what your girlfriend gets up to at the weekends? She's pretty freaky when she wants to be." He smirked. "She is not bad in bed, believe me." Sam felt something snap in him right there. He marched forwards, gripping the front of his shirt and pushing him hard into the stone wall.

He punched him hard in the face. "Alright listen up. Number one, her name's Kate." He growled, punching him again. "Number two, she's my sister." He punched him harder. "And number three, if you come near her again, I swear to god, I will rip your friggin' throat out." He punched him again and let him fall to the ground before kicking him hard in the stomach a few times.

Kate looked between Sam's murderous face and the guy lying on the ground, blood pouring from his mouth and nose. She walked forwards and stood between them, facing Sam. "Sammy." She looked him straight in the eyes as she walked him backwards, pushing him away from the guy.

"Ah come on, that all you got?!" He yelled after Sam.

"You gave my little sister drugs, you're lucky I'm not ripping you apart!" He shouted back.

"He's not worth it, just let it go." She said calmly, noticing the growing number of people watching what was going on, one of them bound to have called the cops. Dean gave her a quick glance, deciding between beating the guy senseless and leaving with them. Knowing exactly what was going on in his head, Kate shot him a look, telling him to leave it. He looked up at her, still holding onto Sam in case he went for him again, and decided he should probably get out of there, before Sam went crazy and murdered the guy.

Dean nodded at her and began following them back to the car. "Where ya goin' sexy? I'm not finished with you yet!" He yelled after Kate as he stumbled to his feet.

"Alright, that's it." Dean muttered, turning and having him gripped around the throat in three long strides, marching him backwards into the wall. He tightened the grip around his neck, staring him dead in the face. "You think I wont kill you?" He spat out, squeezing his neck hard until his eyes began to flutter closed before letting him drop to the floor, coughing and clutching his throat. "I see you again, you'll wish we had killed you." He said darkly before turning from him and walking away, punching his friend to the ground as he passed just to make sure he'd gotten his point across.

They went back to the motel in silence. Kate went into the room first, followed by Sam and then Dean who kicked the door closed behind himself. Kate sat down on one of the beds, Sam sitting opposite her. Dean shrugged off his jacket and moved to sit down beside Kate. He looked up at Sam and smirked. "Well, I gotta say it man.. I'm pretty impressed."

"What?"

"I've never seen you flip out on someone like that before. That's usually my thing."

"Well he was a dick." He grinned.

Dean laughed and nodded. "Man, you sure can pick 'em sis."

She looked up at him and rolled her eyes. "Bite me."

"Hey, don't start being a bitch with me just 'cause your boyfriend's a dick." He said sarcastically. She stared at him for a minute before a grin broke out on her face and she began laughing. "Why do you find this so funny?"

"You're so overprotective."

"Well, someone needs to look out for your skinny ass."

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I never tell you this but you guys do a pretty good job of it."

"Naturally." Dean grinned. "So, since my celebrating was so rudely interrupted by your douche of a drug dealer boyfriend.. I'm gonna go get us some beers." He smiled at them before picking up his jacket and heading towards the door.

Kate moved to sit beside Sam and grinned at him. "How's the hand?"

"Fine." He smiled.

"I mean it you know, about you looking out for me."

"Yeah, I know you do."

She smiled at him and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Thanks Sammy."

"Yeah, anytime." He sighed and looked down at her. "You know I remember when Dean and I were the only guys in your life.. Before we had to start kicking the crap out of boyfriends."

"Hey, you know that you and Dean are the only important guys in my life." She smirked. "No amount of drug dealers with awful hair will ever change that."

Sam looked down for a few seconds before laughing. "He did have pretty bad hair.."

"Coming from you?" She grinned, ruffling his hair.

"Shut up." He laughed and grabbed her arm. "My hair's stylish and you know it."

She rolled her eyes at him and stood up. "If you say so Sammy." She smirked. "Then sure it is."


	34. Chapter 34

Kate groaned as she sat up in bed, putting a hand to her forehead. She climbed out of bed and glanced up at the clock on the wall. 10:47. When Dean had told them the night before that he was going to pick up some beer, he hadn't been kidding. She had absolutely no idea what they'd been drinking but judging by the fact that both of her brothers were still unconscious, she was assuming it had to have been pretty stong. She stumbled to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face, debating whether or not she was going to throw up.

When she came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Dean was sitting on the edge of his bed with his head hung down. "You as hungover as I am?" She asked him flatly.

"I think more." He groaned.

"We are never, ever, drinking that much again." She muttered as she picked up her jacket. "Ever."

Dean laughed lightly. "Make mine a strong one." He said as she pulled the door open, wincing slightly at the sound of it closing.

"I don't think I've ever been so hungover in my life." A voice grumbled from the bed next to his.

Dean looked over at him and smirked. "Kate's gone to get coffee."

"Ugh, thank god for that." He groaned as he sat up.

Kate came back a few minutes later, sitting down heavily at the table with Sam and Dean. "I don't think we've drank so much since we were teenagers." Dean smirked.

"Yeah Dean, you're knocking on thirty now. You can't handle it like you could." Sam grinned at him.

"Shut up Sam." He laughed.

They sat in the motel room for a few hours until they felt further away from death than they had when they'd woken up. "There might be a job in Idaho." Sam said to them over the newspaper he was reading. "Three people dead in the past two weeks. All of them had their organs missing."

"Ew. Sounds fishy." Dean muttered. "We should check that out."

"Yeah, why don't you two get the stuff packed and I'll go get us checked out?"

"Sure." Dean stood up as Sam left and glanced around their room, covered in empty beer bottles and trash. He stuffed a couple of t-shirts lying around into a bag before sitting back down next to Kate. He smirked to himself as he flicked the magazine that she was reading.

"Dean, quit it."

"Quit what?" He asked innocently as he did it again.

She looked up at him and smirked. "Quit it."

"Quit what?" He repeated with a grin.

He waited a couple of minutes before doing it again. "Dean! Quit it!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, now grinning wider than ever. She threw the magazine to the table and jumped out of her chair, Dean doing the same. She ran at him and jumped on him, wrestling him to the ground. "Jeez, when the hell did you get so strong?" He mumbled.

"When did you get so soft you could get your ass kicked by a girl half your size?" She smirked.

"I'm hungover." She rolled her eye at him. Dean went to pin her but she moved first, ending up with him on his stomach. Sam walked into the room and looked between them, raising an eyebrow. Both of them were still on the floor, Dean faced down with Kate holding an arm behind his back.

"What's going on?" He asked nervously.

Kate let go of his arm and got to her feet while Dean rolled onto his back and let out a pained groan. "Oh nothing, your youngest sibling's just being an idiot today. Right Kate?" He said, looking up at her from the floor.

"Uh-huh. As opposed to your eldest sibling who's always been an idiot." Kate smirked at Sam.

"Hah, you always thought you were the funny one." Dean muttered, standing up and shoving her in the arm with a grin.

"I am the funny one."

Sam shook his head. "You're both idiots."

"Oh yeah?" Dean challenged him, standing in front of him and holding out his arms.

"Yeah." He smirked, running at Dean and shoving him onto one of the beds. Kate laughed at them as they wrestled for a couple of minutes before Dean finally managed to push his brother off him.

He stood up and cracked his neck. "You're too tall Sam."

"You're too short." He laughed. "We should get going."

Dean nodded, picking up his bag and heading towards the door. "C'mon Kate." Sam said, grabbing her in a headlock.

Kate laughed at him and punched him lightly in the chest as they followed Dean out of the motel room. She climbed into the backseat and let out a content sigh. After everything she'd been though lately, she finally felt as though she could put it behind her and move on from it all. She smiled to herself, thinking that she was honestly the happiest she'd felt in a long time.."

_Thank you so much for reading and for the support! You've all been so amazing! I'd never have gotten to 34 without you!  
If you liked it maybe check out the sequel? Kate Winchester: Part Three :) _


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